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REMINISCENT 
RAMBLINGS 



REMINISCENT 
RAMBLINGS 



BY 
A. M. WELLES 



To My Sons: 

Merritt and Halsey Welles, 

this work is lovingly dedicated. 



Illustrations by the Author. 



1905 

THE W. F. ROBINSON PRINTING CO. 
DENVER, COLO. 



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REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



CHAPTEE I. 

All through that section of country in North- 
ern New York, where David Harum and Eben 
Holden played in comparative obscurity their 
important, interesting and beautiful parts in the 
great drama of life, where Ethan Allen roared 
his demands for unconditional surrender into 
the ears of the slumbering representatives of a 
foreign power which sought to enthrall the liber- 
ties of his race, and from whence emerged with 
a blind determination born of his convictions, 
that grim unflinching individual, John Brown, 
in his reckless attempt at securing the freedom 
of another, there had long dwelt, and still exists, 
a multitude of unique and interesting characters 
yet unrecorded, and which, though many such 
are personally known to the writer, it is not his 
purpose to attempt. 

In all this section, and particularly that por- 
tion about the shores of Lake Champlain and 
well into the fastnesses of the Adirondacks, has 
been the home of a sturdy class, which in their 
possession of the requisites of strength of limb 
and purpose, industry, thrift, integrity and 
marked individuality, remain unsurpassed by 



O REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

the occupants of any other like area upon the 
American Continent ; an area which though long 
settled and being possessed of, and in close touch 
with the highest advancement anywhere to be 
found, still retains in certain localities the prac- 
tically unchanged features of its original unre- 
claimed condition, which, coupled with the his- 
toric scenes enacted there, lent to the tales of 
Fenimore Cooper the weird, wild interest which 
they possess. 

The writer, being a combination of this 
Northern stock with that of one of the ancient 
clans of Long Island and New Jersey, was in 
early youth settled in the very midst of this in- 
tensely characterized community, environed by 
the most striking peculiarities and customs of its 
people. 

We dwelt in Washington County, near the 
head of Lake Champlain, and but a few miles 
from the historic old town of Skeensboro, now 
called Whitehall; and, like the greater portion 
of the populace, were engaged in farming. The 
district was settled largely by the early overflow 
of Massachusetts and Rhode Island, who brought 
with them the principles and the practices of 
their Mayflower antecessors, and which were 
preserved so carefully, and observed so faith- 
fully, that from the dawn of recollection to the 
day of emancipation, I enjoyed the unswerving 
discipline of a Martinet and the simplicity in 
food, dress, and manners of the earliest Puritan 
environment. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



To be more exact in the location of this early 
home, it was over near Slyborough Corners, a 
cross roads about two miles from the Vermont 
line. In one angle formed by the crossing of 
the roads was what was known far and near as 
the "Old Red School House." In another was 
the combination residence and cobbling estab- 
lishment of Dave Gelder, who himself was a 
combination farmer, shoemaker and politician, 
and employed his time in doing a very little 
farming, and some considerable shoe repairing ; 
the balance, and greater portion of his time be- 
ing consumed in political argument. Dave and 
John Brown and Abe Lincoln, having finally 
succeeded in freeing the slaves, and Brown be- 
ing dead and Lincoln's duties compelling him to 
remain in Washington continuously, it devolved 
upon Dave to make single-handed and full ex- 
planation to the "Copperhead" contingent about 
the Corners in defense of their act. This took 
a long time, and was still being argued when the 
writer, several years later, packed his sheepskin 
out of the "Old Red School House" and finally 
quit the scene. On the third corner was the res- 
idence of Dan 

Wood. This was -_ r . 

a combination es- 
tablishment also, 
and consisted of 
a back kitchen, a 
living room, and a 
"spare" room or 




The Old Red School House. 



8 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 

parlor, with so-called outside door opening on 
the street. Dan's occupation, aside from culti- 
vating his garden and arguing the slave question 
with Dave Gelder, was that of an itinerant 
butcher, a branch of service which frequently 
called him away on long trips of a mile or two 
and kept him fairly busy at certain seasons, es- 
pecially during "hog-killing time," which oc- 
curred late in the autumn. Like most men who 
are wedded to their profession, Dan subordi- 
nated to it the frivolities of dress and fashion- 
able society, as will be remembered by those who 
knew him, hence had little use for a parlor; in 
view of which, and further influenced by his 
incessant dream of the Corners some day be- 
coming a great and important commercial cen- 
ter, he rented this room to a one-armed Welsh- 
man named Hugh Jones for a store ; and when 
a few days later a whole two-horse wagon load 
of general merchandise arrived at the Corners 
and was installed in the new establishment, it 
did look for a time even to the most skeptical, 
that Dan's dreams were about to be realized. 
This store proved a great convenience to the 
school boys, as it enabled them to dispose of any 
stray hen's eggs they came across, in exchange 
for candy, root beer and chewing gum. Upon 
the wall at. one end of the room opposite the 
counter was posted a gaudy print of "Flora 
Temple," in her world-startling feat of trotting 
a full mile in two minutes and forty seconds. 
At the opposite end appeared several wood cuts, 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 9 

purporting to represent the prize fighters, John 
C. Heenan and John Morrisey, as they appeared 
both before and after their battle, and so poorly 
executed as to convey the impression of the con- 
test having actually improved their facial fea- 
tures. The fourth or remaining corner or angle 
formed by the crossing of the roads was occu- 
pied by a young and bearing orchard, which had 
been set out and was cared for by a kind-hearted, 
considerate farmer named Hicks, apparently for 
the sole benefit and convenience of the school 
children. Viewed from every standpoint, it 
seemed at the time that so long as such evils had 
to exist, this was possessed of the best natural 
advantages, and altogether one of the very best 
locations for a schoolhouse that could possibly 
have been selected. Aside from the attractions 
and conveniences set forth, the north and south 
road ran down a hillside and furnished excellent 
and convenient coasting in winter, while the 
great, irregular and generous intersection which 
they formed provided a ball ground for summer. 
At the foot of the hill ran a small stream, which 
in ordinary wet weather and with a little ob- 
struction, furnished a swimming hole. 

The old school house, aside from its duties 
as a dispensary of general information to the 
young, was the place of assemblage for all school 
and town meetings, lyceums for the introduc- 
tion and airing of local budding geniuses (of 
which there was a large crop each year), and 
for the final settlement in fact, either in behalf 



10 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

of the neighborhood or the country at large, of 
all the momentous questions which arose. All 
such contemplated gatherings were several days 
preceded by a painfully formal notice tacked 
upon the door and setting forth the purpose of 
the meeting', the date and hour being given, for 
example, as "next Wednesday night at early 
candle lighting/' each attendant, as a rule, 
bringing a tallow candle as a contribution to 
the illumination. 

Each Sunday evening during the summer 
months it served still another purpose. After a 
pair of lengthy sermons, forenoon and afternoon 
at what was termed the "regular meeting house" 
up at Truthville, two miles distant, and we had 
returned home and hauled in a load or two of 
hay for fear of rain, and turned the team out in 
the pasture, and cooked and eaten supper, and 
milked the cows, we again congregated at the 
old school house where Deacon Mason set to 
work for an hour or two bringing out a great 
number of points which Elder Pratt, in his ser- 
mons up at the regular meeting house, had, 
through lack of time, omitted. 

The "regular meeting house" was from an 
architectural standpoint rather an imposing 
structure for so remote and rural a district, and 
embodied harmonious and dignified features, 
graceful and poetic lines foreign to the general 
ideas of the ordinary country carpenter. Its 
facade was ornamented by a broad gable, sup- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



11 



ported by four Doric columns of huge propor- 
tions; the whole crowned by an ornate belfry; 
at either end of the low porch thus formed, was 
a platform where the farm teams landed their 
loads of worshipers and then passed on to rest 
and wait beneath the sheds that flanked the 
church for a hundred feet or more on either 
side. The choir was in the form of a gallery, 
which projected from the front of the interior 
and extended from wall to wall ; and when El- 
der Pratt the minister had finished reading the 
hymn, and had again given the number and 
page, and again called the choir's attention to 
the fact that they would sing "only the first, 
third and fourth stanzas, omitting the second," 
we all arose and faced about, and joined in or 
remained silent as the Elder had directed. 

From the ceiling was supended two mam- 
moth and ornate chandeliers of cut glass, with 
yards of fringe formed of numberless cut glass 
pendants, which trembled and twinkled and shot 
out their bright 



gleams of irides- 
cent light when- 
ever the Elder, 
rising to heights 
of righteous in- 
dignation over 
the acts of evil- 
doers, violently 
pounded the 
pulpit desk. 



C- 




The "Regular Meeting House" at Truthville. 



12 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

The church, as stated, was located in a little 
nearby hamlet called "Truthville" ; so named it 
was said from the fact that in its earlier history, 
so great a percentage of its residents became so 
skillful in handling the truth, that after a brief 
period of manipulation on their part, it bore no 
semblance to its former self. 

The "creed" promulgated at "the regular 
meeting house" was that of the "Hard Shell" 
Baptist, with no exclusions, interpolations, or 
variations of whatsoever nature. And though 
orthodox and painfully strict and free from 
every form of frivolity and f acetiousness in all 
ceremonies and other doings, it was possessed of 
one interesting and, to us boys, exciting feature 
aside from the regular donation each winter; 
and that was the frequent occurrences of bap- 
tism by immersion. For through some influ- 
ence never perfectly understood by us, these new 
recruits with their changed convictions, always 
presented themselves during the coldest portion 
of a Northern New York winter, when the ice 
was a foot thick or more in the "Mettowee" 
"River down back of the church, and the snow 
four feet deep on its banks. And like boys of 
that age, not attending the protracted meetings 
which brought all this about (for the regular 
Sunday sermons to which we were compelled to 
listen were protracted enough), we had learned 
to note at the close of the afternoon sermon the 
singing of the hymn, "There is a Fountain 
Filled With Blood," and accepted it as pretty 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 13 

conclusive evidence that a baptism was about to 
occur (which seldom failed), and then hied our- 
selves away down to the river and into choice 
positions from which to view the affair. 



Elder Pratt, who presided over the congre- 
gation, and had for many years, was generally 
regarded in the neighborhood as a very able man. 
His annual salary finally, and after many years 
of patient endeavors, reached the sum of four 
hundred dollars cash, together with a house and 
garden, the pasturing of one cow and a donation 
each winter. Aside from his ability, the Elder 
was also regarded as a most sincere man. This 
impression was largely gained from the earnest- 
ness and uncontrollable emotion displayed in the 
delivery of his sermons, and the belief steadily 
gained ground amongst his followers, until late 
one Sabbath afternoon the ungodly son of a 
member of the church, in wending his way home 
from a fishing trip, found in the road, between 
the church and the Elder's house, the manu- 
script of his two sermons for that day. (It 
may here be stated that the Elder invariably 
read his sermons). Opening the manuscript, 
this worldly individual (who like all of his kind 
was ever on the alert for some evidence whereby 
to criticise the acts of the more godly) soon de- 
tected, scattered throughout, numerous marginal 
notes in pencil, such as the following: "Mani- 
fest sympathy," then farther on, "display emo- 



14 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

tion," still farther on, an evidently worse condi- 
tion of affairs called for "show intense emo- 
tion/' and finally the scene culminated at the 
marginal reminder, "weep freely here." 



About once in each year an itinerant leger- 
demain artist, in wandering about the country 
with an old horse and wagon, brought up at the 
schoolhouse and gave a show, which embraced a 
magic lantern, a Punch and Judy exhibition 
with the accompanying ventriloquism, together 
with a few sleight of hand tricks, and a final 
passing around of the hat. This, with a circus 
over at Middle Granville some time during the 
summer or autumn, and a donation for Elder 
Pratt up at the regular meeting house some time 
during the winter, constituted the entire chain 
of events which possessed any real attraction for 
a boy. 

That a boy of that time and environment 
should grow to manhood possessed of some ver- 
satility in the service he could in case of emer- 
gency perform was in no very great degree 
strange. In spring and summer he was called 
from bed at an early hour to get the cows, help 
milk, feed the pigs, make garden, pull weeds, 
ride horse for cultivator, rake scatterings be- 
hind the hay wagon, help "mow" away hay in 
the big hay mow of the barn, up under a hot 
roof, with a big man pitching it back so fast 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 15 

that a boy, half smothered, soaked with rjerspira- 
tion, with hay seed getting down his back and 
straws getting up inside the legs of his panta- 
loons, had all he could do to keep alive, and the 
Commandments meanwhile. Then he could 
churn, with an old-fashioned " dasher" churn, 
the year around. No one ever saw the tempera- 
ture of the cream just suitable for quick opera- 
tion ; after hours of monotonous pounding, they 
would move the chum up close to the stove, then 
away again, then they would pour in a little hot 
water, then a little cold, until there was no ser- 
vice in the long list which had such terrors as 
churning, unless possibly it may have been turn- 
ing grindstone or holding candle for some one to 
work by. 

There were two seasons of the year in which 
the grindstone exercised its deadly functions; 
in the winter when the axes were ground for 
wood chopping, and in the summer time when 
the scythes had to be sharpened for cutting hay. 
What hard steel there was in those axes and 
scythes of that day, and how the man grinding 
did have to bear down on the stone ! Then au- 
tumn came, and between gathering apples, husk- 
ing corn and picking up potatoes, contributed 
fairly in adding further occupations. 



When winter set in there wasn't a single 
thing to do until spring but the chores and go to 



16 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

school, of course. All the chores amounted to 
in the writer's case was about as follows : To be 
called a little before five in the morning to feed 
twenty-five or thirty head of young cattle, fifty 
or sixty sheep, ^.ve or six cows, three or four 
hogs, the farm team and the chickens, milk at 
least two cows, curry the horses and clean the 
stables, and about two mornings in each week, 
shovel snow; then hurry to school, and hurry 
home in the evening to repeat the duties men- 
tioned, besides filling the wood-box heaping full 
for the night. 

Breakfast and supper were always eaten by 
candle light during winter and in the long even- 
ings he was kept in the straight and narrow path 
by being permitted to sit and hold a "hank" of 
stocking and mitten yarn, caught about the 
backs of the hands placed a suitable distance 
apart, with the thumbs in a vertical position, 
while his mother wound it into a ball, and he 
wearily watched the thread pass from end to 
end of the skein, and ducked the right thumb to 
the left and the left thumb to the right to allow 
it to escape. 

This winter idleness endured until the very 
early springtime. While the snows were yet 
deep, and it froze during the night and thawed 
during the day, the sap of the sugar maple 
trees which grew up in the woods at the far end 
of the pasture started to leave its subterranean 
winter quarters in the roots, and climb upward 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 17 

to irrigate the branches for the production of a 
summer foliage. To obtain sugar and molasses, 
and avoid so far as possible the payment of 
money or the exchange of other marketable pro- 
ducts for the same during the year, it became 
necessary to intercept a portion of this saccha- 
rine fluid in its passage upward through the 
trunk, to accomplish which, and to gather and 
reduce the fluid obtained to a usefuul product, 
involved an active, unceasing service. In ar- 
ranging for the task great numbers of spouts 
were prepared from the sumac, which grew in 
bunches about the field. After gathering all 
the pails and milk pans which could be spared 
from the house in which to catch the sap, many 
more receptacles were needed, and these were 
provided by hewing out little troughs from short 
sections cut from the trunks of trees. The old 
cast iron "pot ash" kettle was cleaned up, taken 
to the woods, and at some central and convenient 
point slung to a green pole which was supported 
by two crotched or forked stakes. At times, in 
case of more than ordinary operations, two or 
even three of these kettles were used. The sap, 
after being reduced to a certain consistency was 
dipped from one kettle into the next, when the 
product of the last kettle would be taken to the 
farmhouse for final reduction or "sugaring off" 
in the fireplace or on the kitchen stove. At 
times when there was plenty of snow, and the 
sap was running freely, it was gathered and 



18 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

transported to the kettles with the farm team 
hitched to a "bob" sled upon which was a cider 
barrel with one head knocked out. Ordinarily, 
however, it was packed in large pails suspended 
from a wood shoulder-yoke. The whole was an 
occupation of romantic and absorbing interest, 
and one which required constant attention. The 
weird night scene with its blazing fire of birch 
and beech wood beneath the boiling kettles, the 
light it shed revealing the stately trunks and in- 
tricate branches of the trees which stood within 
its circle, the great sea of impenetrable dark- 
ness which lay beyond in all directions, out of 
the depths of which, through fancy, came the 
snarls and growls of wild beasts, mingled with 
the stealthy footsteps of a wily Indian foe, ren- 
dered a boy's imagination of himself as the hero 
of a "Beadle" blood-curdling experience in the 
Western wilds so complete that standing about 
the fire skimming the scum from the kettles and 
pouring a little cold sap into first one and then 
another as they threatened to boil over, he, after 
a. time, wasn't quite sure that his fancies were 
not real, and the fire burned lower and lower 
through his fear to go outside the circle of light 
for another armful of wood. 

Gradually the snow disappeared, while the 
nights lost their frostiness and the sap ceased to 
run, having finally climbed above the leaks cre- 
ated by the augur holes. The old red fox that 
all winter long had at intervals appeared on the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 19 

white surface of the hill side and coaxed the 
house dog (a half-breed hound) together with 
myself to chase him, had now abandoned his 
winter sports and devoted himself to the ar- 
rangement of his summer campaign. He had 
lived long in the wooded hills about the place, 
and seemed to have waited patiently for both the 
dog and myself to reach an age wherein we 
would be of service to him in the line of exercise 
and amusement. There were numerous foxes 
in the neighborhood, but this old fellow was pos- 
sessed of an individuality that made identifica- 
tion easy. He would come down out of the 
woods into the open field on the hillside in plain 
view of the house, and frisk about until he had 
attracted the dog's attention, who would at once 
set out across the field, baying at the top of his 
voice. While the fox was leading him in a 
grand circle around the hill, I would manage to 
conceal myself in the edge of the woodland 
armed with a little single-barreled, muzzle-load- 
ing shot gun, which cost twenty "York State 
shillings," and of a pattern made especially for 
the amusement of boys and foxes of that period. 
Finally the cry of the old half-breed gave warn- 
ing that they were in the home stretch. Soon 
a big red brush, towed by an extremely animated 
little body would appear bobbing gaily along 
over the snow, and I crouched low to await his 
destruction. But alas, his trail led him past 
just far enough down in the field to be out of 
range. His coming was awaited the second 



20 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

time, but he followed the same track. Then a 
station was established down in the field nearer 
the trail, and in the corner of a rail fence where 
there was a dense thicket. Around he came 
again, but this time his path led far away up 
near the timber. Alter circling the hill a few 
more times and letting the dog gain a little each 
time, just enough to keep up his courage, he 
would suddenly lead out straight across country 
and take the dog so far away from home that 
he would have just time to return and get rested 
up for the following day, while I would trudge 
back to the house and warm my feet and get 
ready to do the chores. 

About eight or nine o'clock at night, as a 
rule, the dog would return, tired and crestfallen, 
sniff about and cast sheepish glances of inquiry 
as to what had become of the fox, then gulp 
down his supper and dropping heavily on the 
floor, stretch at full length beside the kitchen 
stove; and while he slept and gave forth occa- 
sional yelps as in his dreams he renewed the 
chase, and had that fox at times almost within 
his grasp, I sat beside him and warmed my 
boots and greased them with a melted mixture 
of tallow, beeswax and lampblack, to be ready to 
resume the hopeless task upon Reynard's next 
invitation. 



But spring had come now ; the crafty old fox 
had abandoned his winter pastime, and the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 21 

phoebe bird called plaintively from the bunch of 
pussy willows down by the spring. The flock of 
crows that for years had each summer engaged 
in housekeeping over in the hemlocks near the 
edge of the cornfield, winged their way up from 
the South, and being a little early for planting 
time, hovered for the while on the outskirts of 
the farm buildings. 

In the early part of the summer preceding, 
I had shot one of their number while he was 
engaged in sentinel duty, perched on the head of 
a most life-like dummy, armed with a formid- 
able wooden gun and stationed in the corn field. 
The balance of the flock were busily engaged in 
pulling up the corn which had just commenced 
to appear above the surface of the ground. It 
was the ideal time for feasting, as the young 
sprouts marked accurately the position of the 
kernels, and saved a vast amount of blind scratch- 
ing to find them. It was a long chance shot, 
and resulted only in the breaking of a wing. 
Taking him to the house, he was nursed tenderly 
and named Elijah. He domesticated rapidly, 
and in time recovered, but remained a cripple 
for life so far as flight was concerned. Not- 
withstanding the enjoyment of the very best in- 
fluences, "Lije" rapidly developed into a most 
notorious thief, and delighted in doing all sorts 
of low, mean, underhanded acts to both the dog 
and cat, and when they turned upon him, could, 
by taking a running start, fly just enough to 



22 EEMINISCENT EAMBLIWGS. 

reach the top of the fence or the lower limbs of 
the apple trees. Here he would walk sidewise, 
backward and forward, and looking down at 
them, cock his head first on one side, then on the 
other, all the while pouring forth a torrent of 
insulting and abusive crow language. He was 
a wise old fellow, however, and never came 
down at once after they had departed, but would 
ofttimes remain perched up there for a whole 
half day or more, according to the seriousness 
of the offense, and in sulky silence wait pa- 
tiently for time to heal their wounded feelings 
and restore the evenness of their dispositions, 
meanwhile employing his time in the outlining 
of some new deviltry, such for instance as the 
overhauling and general disturbance of a wash- 
ing. His antipathy for anything white was in- 
tense. He apparently became acquainted with, 
and kept an accurate record of the days of the 
week, and knew when Monday came as well as 
any member of the family. There was nothing 
so delighted him, or that he looked forward to 
with such joyous anticipation, as the spreading 
of a nice white sheet or pillow case upon the 
grass to dry, at the first sight of which he would 
hurry away down to the mud hole where the pigs 
wallowed and paddle about in the black mire 
until his feet were well bedaubed, then tiptoe 
back in a careful, gingerly way to avoid as near 
as possible any loss of the supply, when he 
would march in all directions across the field of 
white linen, stopping at intervals to look back 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 23 

over his shoulder and admire the decoration, 
and when the tracks began to grow at all dim 
would suspend operations and trot back down 
to the mud hole for a fresh stock. 

One bright morning the following spring, 
immediately after their return from the South, 
there was a most incessant cawing from the del- 
egation of crows perched upon the ridge pole of 
the barn, upon the fences and in the apple trees, 
while Lije sat on the barnyard gate and listened 
intently, now and then interpolating an inquiry, 
until at last he had apparently fully informed 
himself concerning the winter's sojourn in the 
South, in which he had been unable to take part. 



A cunning old woodchuck had established 
himself well down under the stone fence at the 
far side of the potato patch north of the barn, 
and had dwelt there in security for so long a 
time that he had now commenced to grow gray. 
When the fox's engagement ended, his com- 
menced. He knew every farmer's dog in the 
neighborhood and had induced each of them to 
spend hours in frantic digging at the mouth 
of his burrough while he laid away down at the 
bottom of the hole in stony ground under a huge 
rock pile and chuckled. When the dog, ex- 
hausted and with toe nails bleeding, dropped 
panting for a time on the pile of loose earth to 
rest, the old fellow, just to encourage him in his 
work, would climb up near the mouth of the 



24 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

hole, give a sharp whistle and go back, while the 
dog, crazed with excitement, would tear away at 
the hopeless task for another hour ; then, at last, 
so thoroughly weary and disheartened that noth- 
ing could induce him to toil longer, he would 
leave for home, and the old groundhog would 
come cautiously forth, climb up on the stone 
fence and sit for hours watching for some fresh 
dog to pass along the highway down below. 
From his lookout he commanded an open space 
in all directions that placed him well beyond the 
range of a shotgun. He, like the old red fox, 
had with an almost paternal interest and satis- 
faction, seemingly, watched me evolve from 
swaddling clothes to a stage wherein I was wont 
to sit beside the dog at the mouth of the hole and 
urge him to his work, while he, as described, 
extended him occasional encouragement from 
within. 

Following this came the period of traps, 
which seemed to amuse the old fellow im- 
mensely, and he never failed to point out the 
faultiness of each attempt at deception, through 
some evidence of its discovery, and how to avoid 
its purpose. Occasionally, when in his estima- 
tion it was an unpardonable botch, he would ex- 
press his disapproval and contempt by turning 
the trap completely over. When the little 
twenty shilling shotgun made its appearance, 
though possessed of a certain element of danger, 
he manifested no alarm whatever, other than 
that of all people with whom I came in contact, 



BEMIETSCENT EAMBLINGS. 25 

and which was more an uneasiness over the 
safety of the boy himself during his maiden ex- 
perience with a gun than any fear whatever of 
injury to his own person, for he had been shot at 
many times with far more formidable weapons 
than this, and it took him but a few days to de- 
termine to a foot just how much liberty he could 
afford to allow in approaching him, for he 
seemed really proud of my efforts and rapid de- 
velopment, and wanted to humor me to the full- 
est extent and at the same time not appear cow- 
ardly and unfair or take too many chances him- 
self. Every form of strategy was employed 
whereby to get within a little closer range of 
the old fellow, but he positively declined to 
grant the advantage. Finally a method was in- 
augurated of making the little shotgun carry 
farther, or extending its range. A man who 
lived over in "Gelder Hollow" owned a gun 
called a rifle, and forming a pretty fair idea of 
its principles, a piece of lead pipe was cut into 
large slugs, placed together compactly, wrapped 
with a piece of strong cloth and tied tightly, 
making a wad that fitted closely in the muzzle 
of the little shotgun, then ramming it down sol- 
idly on the charge of powder below and march- 
ing with a sort of privileged and intensely hon- 
orable air, born of a thoroughly understood 
agreement between the woodchuck and myself, 
up to the limit of approach he had laid down 
for me, and while engaged in a series of very 
precise, yet scandalously false movements, in- 



26 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

tended to impress the old groundhog with an 
enormity of honor and conscientiousness he had 
never yet witnessed in seeking to avoid the 
slightest advantage, managed to steal a few feet 
over the line, and while the old fellow's vision 
was still bedimmed hy his admiration of the 
evident principle his boy friend was possessed 
of, I suddenly whirled and fired the sack full 
of leaden slugs directly at him. When a few 
minutes later I had fully regained conscious- 
ness, blood was flowing freely down my cheek, 
from a deep cut below my right eye. I made 
one attempt to wipe it away with my right hand, 
but the right shoulder refused to join in the 
operation. Evidently a mule had kicked me 
somewhere in that neighborhood. The gun lay 
upon the ground some distance away, a tiny 
wreath of smoke still curling upward from its 
muzzle, like the faint column of ascending vapor 
that long afterward marks the point of a ter- 
rible volcanic explosion. I looked beyond ; the 
old groundhog had climbed to the summit of 
the rock pile, and sat silent and forlorn. My 
return to consciousness in no degree seemed to 
restore him to his former self. His counte- 
nance and entire attitude was shrouded in the 
dense folds of despair and disappointment as he 
gazed sadly and silently upon the now naked 
villainy of the boy of whom he had expected so 
much, and finally iipon the mass of blasted 
hopes that lay between. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 27 

Finally recovering from the results of ex- 
perience in increasing the range of the gun, and 
having forfeited all further confidence or con- 
sideration on the part of my old friend the 
groundhog, I gathered up my traps, shouldered 
the little shotgun, and laden with these and a 
weight of guilt, strolled dejectedly down the 
road, past the woodchuck and his reproachful, 
yet sympathetic gaze, as sitting above the rock 
pile the grizzled and venerable old patriarch 
gave no evidence of vindictiveness or ill will, 
but fully determined upon the decision he had 
formed, yet charitable withal, his whole manner 
seemed to say, "Let the erring boy depart in 
peace." Then on, leaving the road and follow- 
ing the intricate windings of a brooklet down 
into the deep dark solitude of a tamarack 
swamp, well away from the scene of this treach- 
erous act, and safe from the dangers of social in- 
tercourse or communication of any sort between 
its denizens and the wronged, betrayed and sor- 
rowing woodchuck, who held the record of my 
past. 

Here in the pools and mud banks dwelt a 
well organized and thrifty family of muskrats, 
the quiet of whose home life remained, so far, 
undisturbed, save by occasional raids upon the 
younger members of the family by one or the 
other of a pair of hen hawks whose nest for 
years had been high up over them in the stately 
tamarack, or the warning screams of a blue jay, 
doing lookout duty from its topmost branch. 



28 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Pushing on into the tangle of tall grass and 
thicket with almost noiseless footsteps in step- 
ping from bog to bog, no great distance had been 
reached when the sudden sound arose of a body 
entering a nearby pool ; not a violent splash, but 
the soft, harmonious plunk, arising from the im- 
pact with water of a heavy body presenting its 
least resisting surface. This was quickly fol- 
lowed by another and more distant one. Then 
intense silence reigned, broken only by the oc- 
casional call of the meddlesome blue jay far up 
in the tamarack, as generously and indiscrimi- 
nately he proclaimed the fact to the entire 
swamp life, that the . foe still lurked in their 
midst. The place was dark, silent and uncheer- 
ful: dense distrust and a lack of welcome made 
itself felt on every hand, until despair finally 
possessed me at ever establishing myself in these 
new surroundings upon a footing of privilege, 
confidence and good fellowship in any degree 
approaching that heretofore enjoyed on the part 
of the genial old fox and groundhog. Raising 
the gun to fire at the impudent blue jay seated 
upon his lofty perch, then just in time recalling 
the information imparted by a serious old 
farmer who lived neighbor, that "it strained a 
gun terribly to shoot at anything so high up," 
inclined it against a tree, setting the traps in 
such cunning ways, there remained at last but 
one fear, and that was of the tell-tale bluejay 
who sat and watched from above. 



REMINISCENT EAMBEINGS. 29 

Far over to the west in the belt of beech and 
birch woodland, a partridge drummed fearlessly 
and alone. Grasping the gun and guided by 
the occasional calls, he was at last located in a 
dense thicket of underbrush at the head of a 
little hollow. The drumming ceased now, yet 
he was in there somewhere, it was certain; 
and stealing stealthily forward with gun cocked 
and ready, up to the very edge of the tangle, it 
was equally certain that he would never leave 
there alive. Suddenly, and within ten feet, he 
arose with a whir-r-r so startling that I jumped 
backward, fell over a rotten log and discharged 
the gun into the ground in an opposite direc- 
tion, then scrambled to an upright position just 
in time to see the partridge with his wings set, 
sail downward to another place of concealment 
so plainly in sight that he knew there would be 
no difficulty in locating it. Reloading the gun, 
I approached the second hiding place, now fully 
nerved to withstand the sudden and noisy dem- 
onstration without being startled in the least. 
Again he rose, this time even nearer and with 
greater suddenness, while the loud and spiteful 
whir-r-r made one's ears ring and the very leaves 
about quake and rustle on the trees. Again I 
jumped, and though not falling or accidentally 
discharging the gun, stood transfixed and en- 
tirely forgetting to shoot, until he had sailed 
downward once more and out of sight behind a 
little knoll. For a half mile or more he flew 
from cover to cover, the freedom he extended 



30 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

increasing gradually, as it became more and 
more apparent to him, with what little actual 
danger he was beset. And each time he rose 
and discharged that whir-r-r upon the stilly at- 
mosphere of the forest, his pursuer made the 
same little jump, and fired the gun accidentally, 
or forget to fire it at all until he was well out 
of reach. 

Day after day I trudged over to the swamp, 
and, approaching, heard the same old warning 
cry of the blue jay, followed by the plunk, plunk, 
plunk, of the rats as they entered the pools, then 
examined the empty traps and trudged wearily 
home again, for the swamp was a long way off, 
and with the duties at home could seldom find 
time to visit it save by arranging to do such 
work as arose by "stents" ; hence concluded to 
abandon the locality, and having finished the 
"stent" for the following Saturday, journeyed 
over to the swamp and gathered up the traps, 
the last one reached being over on the east side, 
where a belt of pines bordered the marsh for 
some distance. 

Sitting on the trunk of a fallen tree some 
distance back from the edge of a pool, I waited 
for the time in a final enjoyment of the dense 
forestry, and with the hope of obtaining a shot 
at some imprudent rat, who, overjoyed at my 
departure, might show himself too soon. A 
honey bee buzzed aimlessly about my head for 
so long, that, tiring of its attentions, I brushed 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 31 

it away. It returned in haste, with increased 
buzzing and persistence. Then I struck it to 
the ground with my hat. It arose quickly, made 
a swift, short circuit, and landed on the back of 
my neck. I danced about, and swung my hat 
wildly in defence, as a dozen more made quick 
determined darts at my bare feet, hands, face 
and neck, then stampeded blindly into the tim- 
ber until they had given up the chase. Smart- 
ing and aching from a dozen stings, I stole cau- 
tiously back to recover the gun and traps, when 
near the spot I had been sitting, there high up 
on the trunk of a huge pine tree, appeared a 
small, irregular opening, through which a con- 
tinuous swarm of bees were entering and de- 
parting. I had heard of "bee trees," and 
had spent some hours with a little box with 
a piece of window glass in the cover and 
some sugar inside, trying to "line" them to 
their home, but had never yet seen one. I re- 
treated to a safe distance and w T atched them 
long and carefully, so long in fact, that it was 
well past the usual time for getting the cows 
from the pasture for milking, when I reached 
home, but hoping to ward off the greater warmth 
of the reception, which under ordinary circum- 
stances would have been expected, through a 
graphic description of the most remarkable "bee 
tree" of which there was as yet any record. In 
any event, I should no doubt have through nat- 
ural excitement, overlooked nothing in the line 
of magnitude, but coupled with an eagerness to 



32 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

render it a defense against punishment, by 
arousing an enthusiasm in my people which 
would cause them to entirely overlook the mat- 
ter of tardiness, I made the tree entirely too 
big; in fact, I don't recall ever since having 
heard of so large a tree. 

My father frowned, muttered something 
about a boy's lying to his own folks, got out his 
jack-knife and started over toward a big bunch 
of lilac bushes which grew in a corner of the 
dooryard fence; and I knew he wasn't going 
after a bouquet for me, for I had watched him 
make the same trip before on similar occasions. 
Standing there trying to figure out about how 
big a "bee tree" really had to be to furnish a 
proper peace offering in a case of this kind, my 
mother interfered, and said "there might be 
something in it, and anyhow, I shouldn't be 
punished until it was proven there wasn't," and 
old Jase Winchell, who worked around the 
neighborhood when he wasn't hunting, or fish- 
ing, or drunk, and who had been hoeing potatoes 
for us that day, got up from the hen coop where 
he was sitting, and removing the quid of tobacco 
from his mouth preparatory to replacing it with 
a fresh one, said he "believed every dog-goned 
word of it, for he had lined mor'n a thousand 
bees down toward the swamp in the last two 
years, but somehow or 'nother couldn't seem to 
'meet up' with the place where they went to," 
and my father finally closed the knife against 
his hip, dropped it back in his trousers pocket, 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 33 

reached down and broke off a timothy straw, 
meditatively picked his teeth with it, and re- 
marked somewhat skeptically, "Well, we'll see." 

The sun had sometime past set, and but a 
faint reflection of its light still lingered in the 
west, when father and Jase, in company with 
myself as guide, and provided with a sharp ax, 
a lantern and a wooden milk pail, together with 
several pairs of sheepskin mittens for the hands, 
and my mother's entire stock of veils for the 
protection of our heads and necks, single-filed 
down across the fields, with myself in the lead. 

A feeling of grave responsibility and dread 
uncertainty oppressed me, as I trudged forward 
leading the way, which was heightened by the 
plaintive and sympathetic notes of the " Whip- 
poor-will," who, from somewhere over in the 
darkness of the forest beyond, called at regular 
intervals in tones of sadness and distrust. 

It was now quite dark when we reached the 
swamp, and herein the shadows of its tall trees 
and tangle shut out the dim light which existed, 
and when, in crossing to the pine belt on the 
other side, my father in the darkness mistook a 
bunch of grass for a bog, and went down deep in 
the mire and water, it was certain from several 
remarks which escaped him as he floundered 
about, and later while he sat on the bank and 
pulled off his boots and emptied them, that there 
had to be a bee tree over there in the pines, and 
a big one, too. 



34 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

When at last we reached it, both himself 
and Jase stopped for a time and looked admir- 
ingly upward along its towering trunk. All 
was silent, and the intense darkness was dis- 
turbed only by the little circle of light which 
surrounded the old tallow candle lantern. My 
father, taking the ax from Jase, and stepping 
over to the tree with the air of a man who knew 
just what to do first in the case, and just how to 
do it, hit the tree a sharp rap to ascertain if it 
were hollow ; then as he reached backward to de- 
liver another blow higher up, a bee stung him 
on the nose; and as he dropped the ax and 
grabbed the injured member with both hands, 
two others stung him on the neck. While he 
jumped about and howled with pain, I retreated 
to a safe point where I could sympathize with 
him, and incidentally gloat over the weight of 
evidence he was acquiring in support of my 
statements. It was something he had sternly de- 
manded, and surely he couldn't hope to find a 
bee tree without bees. 

Carefully arranging the sheepskin mittens 
and veils, and starting a smudge at the foot of 
the tree, the attack began. Jase wielded the ax, 
cautiously at first, slightly hesitating between 
each stroke to assure himself that his fortifica- 
tions were impregnable, as the bees swarmed 
downward in countless numbers to the defense 
of their home. Satisfied of his absolute secur- 
ity, he now utterly ignored the enemy, and 
slashed away vigorously. Suddenly the ax, in 



KEMINISCEJNTT RAMBLINGS. 35 

descending, curved from its course, flew from his 
grasp and disappeared in the darkness, while 
Jase hopped wildly about on one foot, clinging 
tenaciously to the opposite leg with one hand, 
while with the other he made frantic grabs here 
and there, each grab accompanied by an excited 
expression unnecessary to repeat. A bee bewil- 
dered by the light and smoke had wandered 
from the ranks, and in groping about in search 
of his bearings, had strolled upward and along 
the inside of a leg of Jase's trousers, and Jase 
had at last "met up" with the bee tree he had 
been hunting. 

Finally the tree was felled, and sounding 
along its trunk a point was selected for an open- 
ing. Gradually the section was removed by 
making the cuts about two feet apart, and split- 
ting away the intervening material until there 
lay exposed a field of honey, filling the entire 
opening, and extending both upward and down- 
ward in the trunk indefinitely. 

The wildest excitement now prevailed; and 
my father's estimate of the volume of honey was 
even less conservative than mine had been in de- 
scribing the size of the tree, and hastily I was 
dispatched to the house for more receptacles. 
Returning, my mother accompanied me, each of 
us with an additional milk pail, while between 
us we toted a good-sized washtub. For the fol- 
lowing hour it simply rained honey in those 
woods, and when we reached home and had 
weighed up the entire cargo with the steelyards, 



36 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

and then emptied the receptacles and weighed 
them, and I had, in less than an hour, figured 
the whole thing up on my slate, there appeared 
as a net result, one hundred and forty pounds 
of honey, and old Jase (who couldn't read or 
write a word) looked up with sudden amaze- 
ment when I announced the result, then came, 
and looking over my shoulder examined the fig- 
ures carefully, and said he "Guessed mebbe 
'twas all right, but if he'd bin guessin' he'd sot 
it more'n that." 



CHAPTEK II. 

The life and teachings of a boy raised on a 
farm in Northern New York as late at least as 
the third quarter of the nineteenth century, was 
not of a nature amongst other things that tended 
to cultivate in him any extravagant tastes or lav- 
ish expenditures in the gratification of rapidly 
growing wants. A ten-cent straw hat, a cotton 
shirt and a pair of blue jean trousers did him 
nicely for summer wear, and the style never 
changed. The leather that covered his feet, 
though holes were punched in it at times (as in 
the case of every bare-footed boy) , was of a na- 
ture that did its own repairing. The suit of 
sheep's gray, or other "full cloth" that did ser- 
vice upon dress occasions during the summer, 
had the new worn off, and was thoroughly sea- 
soned for active service during the following 
winter, accompanied by a pair of cow hide 
boots with red tops, and soles fastened on with 
wooden pegs. The cloth was secured in ex- 
change for stuff raised on the farm, and was 
cut and made up at home by an itinerant tailor- 
ess, who came and boarded and roomed at the 
house until the work was finished. She never 
took any measurements save heighth, and then 
allowed about six inches for growth during the 
existence of the suit. This had the effect of 



38 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

compelling the sleeves of the coat, and the legs 
of the trousers to be worn rolled up until the 
suit was pretty well worn out. The trousers 
were lined all the way through with a coarse 
cotton cloth. The body of the coat was lined 
with a part of an old alpaca dress (which had 
been saved for the purpose ) , with a layer of cot- 
ton batting between the lining and the cloth. 
The coat sleeves were lined with a Turkey red 
calico and the suit was complete, 

His stockings and mittens were made from 
the wool of the sheep raised on the farm. In 
the springtime they were washed in a deep hole 
in the brook, then shorn and the wool carded and 
formed into little rolls of about two feet in 
length and a half inch in diameter. These 
were then spun into yarn upon the old spinning 
wheel with its wooden pulley of great diameter, 
belted with a cord to the spindle, which made 
rapid revolutions as the wheel was spasmodic- 
ally revolved with the right hand, while the left 
manipulated the roll. The yarn was then 
reeled into hanks, which were submerged for the 
proper time in a blue dye made of indigo. The 
hanks being first tied tightly at intervals of 
about two inches, which had the effect of pro- 
tecting these compressed sections from the dye, 
and producing small white spots at regular dis- 
tances along the thread, and gave to the mittens 
and stockings a speckled pattern. After dye- 
ing, the hanks of yarn were wound into balls, 
and were then ready for knitting. 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 39 

iSTo artfully draped show windows filled with 
seductive suits of various styles, no array of 
gaudily-painted sleds and highly-polished skates 
of skilled manufacture, no golf, lawn tennis, or 
ping pong sets ; no frequently advanced models 
of bicycles, or alluring matinees of weekly occur- 
rence presented their temptations daily, and 
filled the mind with envy and longing. No 
stately soda fountains, with arctic decorations, 
produced frequent thirsts, each of which re- 
quired the expenditure of a nickel to quench. 
But in place of these highly colored, stale and 
expensive concoctions, he gathered the dande- 
lion, the burdock, and the bark of the birch 
tree, which ivas boiled and brewed into a whole- 
some drink. He gathered and ate the nuts of 
the hickory, the chestnut, and the butternut 
trees, and instead of squandering a dime for 
poisonous and sickening candies, quietly ex- 
tracted a hunk of maple sugar from the ample 
store. 

As he evolved to that stage of manhood that 
craved the use of tobacco, not through an actual 
taste of the weed, but wholly from a desire to 
appear manly and full-fledged, his first step 
was a cigar made from a section of the wild 
grape vine. From which he rapidly evolved to 
the clandestine use of his father's pipe. The 
cigarette was a stranger; and had it presented 
itself would have met with but little favor, 
through its expensiveness and effeminacy. 



40 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

In such manner passed the life of a boy of 
this time and locality, until finally he had been 
through all the books that were taught in the 
common schools round about, and perchance, in 
case of uncommon affluence and advanced ideas 
on the part of his parents, and some natural de- 
sire on his own part, was sent away to college, 
a school away off somewhere outside the county, 
as remote and fanciful in the minds of the rural 
masses as some temple of teaching in the in- 
terior of India might be to the fairly well in- 
formed of to-day. (Reference is made wholly 
to the boy in such case, as in that section, the 
idea of educating a girl along the higher, more 
useful and independent lines was then regarded 
as absurd.) 

Instances, however, of extravagant and os- 
tentatious display of learned taste were rare. 
About the only case that had ever occurred in 
the neighborhood was that of old Ebenezer 
Savage, who owned a farm over on the main 
road leading from the Corners to North Gran- 
ville, who some twenty-five years previous had 
sent his son Josiah "through, college." As to the 
particular college he attended, evidence is lack- 
ing ; and it yet remains a question as to its ever 
having occurred to a single resident of the neigh- 
borhood that there was more than one. Never- 
theless it was the only great educational event 
that had occurred in all that section preceding 
the writer's departure therefrom, and was still 
being discussed at every fireside at regular in- 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 41 

tervals and with breathless interest, particu- 
larly that portion of the affair relating to the 
thousand dollars, which the same had cost the 
a old man." 

Josiah had been clear through college, and 
returned home to the farm some ten or a dozen 
years before the writer was born; up to which 
time the neighbors all agreed he had never done 
a stroke of work, and after which, the writer is 
willing to swear that to the best of his knowledge 
and belief, he never violated his principles in 
this respect. And it was right and proper he 
shouldn't, for "Cy" was too rare a specimen, 
and it wasn't a business proposition from any 
point of view to mar and soil and bedim this 
thousand-dollar job of polishing, by subjecting 
it to the rough and undignified service of dig- 
ging potatoes, building stone wall and chopping 
cord wood, and the whole community seemed to 
feel that way about it too, particularly so long 
as his father fed and clothed him, and it didn't 
cost them anything. They regarded him as a 
sort of a community pride, and openly boasted 
that the Corners had a man that had "better 
learnin' " than any man within nine miles of 
there. The standard of education he had ac- 
quired impressed the neighbors as extremely 
high. It also seemed entirely beyond the com- 
prehension of the most learned and constant 
readers of the New York Weekly Tribune to be 
found in their midst. It was the regular high- 
grade stock article that the college of that day 



42 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

dealt out, a curriculum almost equal to that of 
the public high school of to-day. 

For twenty-five years or more Josiah spent 
his time in "setting" on his father's front porch, 
lighting up the dense ignorance not only of his 
own home, but that of the whole neighborhood. 
A lone intellectual light-house, as it were, in the 
midst of the little sea of dark, deep, impene- 
trable primitive ideas by which he was sur- 
rounded. Then he would make a regular trip 
each day up to ISTorth Granville, and "set" on 
the counter in old Bob Dayton's store, and read 
a borrowed copy of the aforementioned E"ew 
York Tribune, edited by Horace Greeley. Hor- 
ace was the product of a little town called Poult- 
ney, but a short distance over the line in Ver- 
mont, and the folks each side of the line were 
equally proud of him, and had grown to regard 
his doctrines as gospel truths, and no good, gen- 
uine dyed-in-the-wool "Black" Republican ever 
assumed to ask any further questions, and there 
weren't any followers of any other political creed 
around there, at least if there were they never 
voted. And so, when Cy had carefully noted 
all of Greeley's latest utterances, and in regular 
order engaged in a discussion of them, inter- 
spersed with occasional criticisms, and a shower 
of Latin quotations, the old farmers sat about 
on boxes and nail kegs and chewed "fine cut" 
and whittled, and considered the advisability of 
the dominance of higher education over old-time 
political faith. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 43 

The time finally came when the writer had 
mastered all the branches of learning dealt in at 
the old red school house at the Corners, and like 
Josiah Savage, was sent away to school. But, 
unlike in his case, came home each night and 
did the chores as usual, for the school was less 
than three miles distant ; it was the old Academy 
up at North Granville, a notable structure in 
its day, and its date of erection not far removed 
from that of the "regular meeting house" at 
Truthville, while its location was near the same. 

A year and more was spent tramping for- 
ward and back over the route, which led partly 
through a cow pasture, then through the great 
belt of woodland that crowned the summit of 
the hill, then down through a long lane and into 
the main street of the village below. 

Later the family residence became changed 
to the settlements, as it were, and to the sub- 
urbs of a little hamlet called Comstock's Land- 
ing, on the line of the Rensselaer and Saratoga 
Railway, and the Champlain Canal, some seven 
miles distant. It was a little settlement or land- 
ing on the banks of the canal, created away back 
in the forties by Peter Comstock, who, rising 
rapidly from the ranks, had acquired an estate 
at this point, at the same time bursting with stu- 
pefying effect upon the unprepared minds of 
the region as a Napoleon of transportation. 

He established on the canal, as part of a 
rapid transit system between New York and 
Montreal, a line of fast boats, drawn by mules 



44 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

and known as "Packets." To connect with 
these he placed on Lake Champlain a steamboat 
named "Saltus," a boat then possessed of reck- 
less speed and great splendor. His ambition 
was boundless ; and he became known all along 
the line between the cities aforementioned, and 
even so far off the line as at Trnthville and 
the Corners. He had some time since laid 
down the reins of active business, and the rail- 
way had come and paralleled the canal, and the 
swift-going packets were in disuse, and other 
faster and grander steamboats on the lake had 
robbed the Saltus of her glory. Every boy 
about the Corners longed to view the scene of 
this intense civilization and excitement, past 
and present ; but it was far away, and only the 
older members of the community, who in the 
fall of the year had hauled potatoes there to 
market, had ever seen it. And now the very 
thought of being permitted to actually reside 
there, and see the long trains of cars pass daily, 
and watch the huge canal boats plow their way 
through the deep, dark waters of the canal, pos- 
sessed one with a keen sense of the hopelessness 
and desolation that surrounded those being left 
behind. _f_ 

Farming was also the main industry about 
the Landing, and the boys here differed little 
from the boys about the Corner, save and except 
added hours of swimming and fishing, induced 
through vastly increased facilities and lack of 
watchfulness on the part of the household. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 45 

Their education also, amongst a chosen few 
only, reached its culminating point at the Old 
Academy at ]^orth Granville. Then, as about 
the Corners, a post graduateship invariably and 
immediately followed at some calling which 
would cleanse the system of any idle or sluggish 
tendencies acquired meanwhile. The writer was 
under the mastery of an educator named Dona- 
ahue, a stone mason for the Railway Company, 
as his assistant in the construction of a line of 
piers for a foot bridge to reach the railway sta- 
tion. It was an unimportant service and con- 
sisted simply in shoveling and screening the 
sand and carrying the water and mixing the 
mortar and carrying it in a hod and dumping it 
on a platform and wheeling the stone and laying 
them down where they were handy for him to 
reach and helping him lift all the big ones and 
put them in place, while Donahue did all the 
balance of the work himself. 

Donahue was a man of huge proportions and 
possessed in a marked degree the typical charac- 
teristics of his countrymen, notably a blandish- 
ment of speech, coupled with certain manners 
and movements, such as the elevation of the 
trousers through a fore and aft tug at the waist- 
band, accompanied by an upward side glance at 
the sun, which, together with certain other man- 
oeuvres, indicated intense action but really ac- 
complished little. 

At first one was rather inclined to fear the 
man ; his loud and constant exercise of voice in 



46 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

giving orders, together with his apparent hurry 
and bustle, created terrifying visions of ceaseless 
toil. However, after a brief period of service, 
there was gained gradually and almost uncon- 
sciously a fairly accurate measure of him, so 
that in the very midst of his most violent volleys 
of rebuke, it became easy to maintain an indif- 
ferent and undisturbed demeanor, and in fact 
difficult to avoid cultivating a most peculiar 
fancy for the man and his ways that occupied 
one's mind almost to absent-mindedness. Many 
of his ways, in fact, his whole system, when 
analyzed, were not so wholly void of sense as the 
casual observer might infer. Little by little the 
fact was deduced that in the great struggle be- 
tween labor and capital, labor had in Donahue a 
mighty defense. ]STot that of incendiary speech 
or violent act, but the possession of a strategical 
and diplomatic system, so fathomless, subtle and 
concealed, as to carry the conviction of honesty 
of purpose well home to the heart of the most 
dissatisfied employer. Under Donahue's magni- 
ficently misleading system the railway manage- 
ment were induced to maintain an agreeable and 
thoroughly satisfied attitude relative to the ser- 
vice they were receiving during the progress of 
the work. In a boy of impressionable age, who 
was at all an apt student, there was at last, per- 
haps, as between the boy and Donahue, little to 
choose. -r- 

Mr. Baker was a great railway man. He 
was general manager of the road which ran 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 47 

through the little hamlet of Comstocks where he 
lived, and also of another line known as "The 
Kutland and Washington," extending from 
Eagle Bridge in E"ew York to Kutland in Ver- 
mont, and which in its course followed closely 
the boundary between the two states, dodging 
repeatedly across the line, first into one state 
and then into the other, as though avoiding the 
sheriffs of the different counties through which 
it passed. It was a home institution, and built 
largely by the farmers and merchants along the 
line; while the trainmen were nearly all farm- 
ers 7 sons, at whose homes, located not too far dis- 
tant from the track, the trains frequently 
stopped, and all hands went over and feasted on 
doughnuts and pie, and slaked their thirst with 
buttermilk and hard cider. And ofttimes a 
neighboring farmer's daughter, the sweetheart of 
one of the boys in the cab of the engine, or far- 
ther back in the cars, would come down by the 
side of the track and wave a greeting to the 
loved one with her sunbonnet ; and the engineer 
would stop to make sure whether the signal 
meant danger to the whole train, or only to the 
individual. 



And now when the piers were finished and 
Donahue had departed, I lounged at my head- 
quarters in the old covered bridge that spanned 
the canal, and viewed with discontent the now 
completed foot bridge that led across the marsh 
to the station, and watched the busy bustling 



48 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

engines and the bright painted cars as they 
passed, and envied their attendants, who seemed 
never without an occupation ; and then in diver- 
sion and to break the train of unhappy thought, 
dropped a pebble through a crack in the floor 
upon the head of an unsuspecting boatman as, 
leaning lazily against the tiller, he passed slowly 
underneath, and chuckled as he raved at ran- 
dom ; and relief possessed me for the time that 
I was not alone in the world, and that others 
had troubles beside myself. 

The regular passenger train from the South 
came rattling down through the rock cut and 
pulled up at the station. A single passenger 
dismounted, and started briskly across the new 
foot bridge, stopping suddenly above each pier 
and leaning far out over the rail, carefully and 
critically examining the work below. It was 
Mr. Baker; the job seemed to please him, and 
hurrying forward he entered the bridge. I 
quickly dropped the pine stick being whittled, 
slipped the knife in my trousers pocket, and as- 
sumed a serious, thoughtful air ; for I knew the 
man, and that in all his long active career he 
had never found time to whittle; and while I 
managed to quite effectually cover the shavings 
with my feet, he stopped and said: "You and 
Donahue seem to have done a fine job over 
there; suppose you could do as well at something 
else? There's a vacancy over on the Rutland 
and Washington as clerk and timekeeper of the 
shops at Salem; get ready to leave to-morrow 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 49 

and come to the house for your letter of intro- 
duction to the master mechanic, Mr. Fred Keg- 
ler." 

The matter of calling for the letter was dis- 
tasteful. I much preferred he would leave it at 
some out-of-the-way place where I could find it. 
It was promptly prepared, however, and picking 
it up and retaining it for the time, he turned 
about in his chair and facing me commenced an 
address. We will not attempt to repeat it here. 
Few have grown to manhood or womanhood and 
failed to receive it at some time from some 
source. It was the one thing dreaded in going 
for the letter. It has always been a part of the 
programme. "No boy ever yet escaped it under 
similar circumstances. 

Escaping to the grounds, Tim Harrigan, the 
stable man, lay in wait, and farther on old Ly- 
man Rich, the carpenter of the estate, and others, 
not a soul of whom shirked their duty in stock- 
ing me up with blessings and advice, until the 
impression long remained that if all boys were to 
grow great and good proportionately with these 
possessions, certainly I had gained a great han- 
dicap in the race over all others. 

It was late in the afternoon of the day fol- 
lowing when the little passenger train of two 
coaches and a baggage car (drawn by the "Hor- 
ace Clark," a wheezy, wood-burning locomotive, 
with a huge flaring smokestack, and with boiler 
and cylinders glistening with sheet brass, and 



50 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

the tender gaudily painted with an ornate border 
around its sides forming a panel, and the stars 
and stripes in each corner and the name in huge 
letters in the center, and again on each side of 
the cab under the window in case the first might 
be overlooked), after stopping at the little ham- 
let of Rupert on the Vermont side, took water at 
the tank, then moved a little further down the 
track to a huge pile, where the conductor, brake- 
man, baggageman, station agent and many of the 
passengers, tossed wood aboard until the tender 
was piled high ; when the brakes were let loose, 
the wheel spun 'round as they released their 
hold, and the train rattled on down the grade 
and across the line into York State for the last 
time on the journey south, and finally brought 
up at the station of Salem. The conductor el- 
bowed his way through the crowd with a haughty 
privilege, as he sought the agent in sending a 
dispatch down the line to another train whereby 
to arrange a meeting place; for the conductor 
was a very important personage in those days 
and did his own train dispatching, and sat at 
the head of the table at the dinner stations (when 
the road was of sufficient length to require a 
dinner station, which was seldom). His rank 
protected him from all the little petty annoy- 
ances of the present-day conductor, and he 
treated the "spotter" with absolute contempt and 
indifference while he made change and chatted 
pleasantly with the "cash fare/' and frowned 
severelv at the holder of a ticket. 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 51 

It was a great crowd of fifty or more people 
at the station this day when the train arrived, 
and marveling greatly at the demonstration, a 
faint suspicion finally presented itself that all 
this might possibly be clue to the expected arrival 
of the new timekeeper. 



CHAPTER III. 

The train pulled away from the station, the 
loungers gradually dispersed, following down 
the main street in the wake of the old village 
postmaster and his mail bag. Timidly en- 
tering the waiting room, Mr. Kegler, the master 
mechanic, was located, and the letter tremblingly 
presented. Beside him stood the superintendent 
of the division, Mr. Z. V. K. Wilson, to whom 
(after reading the letter carefully and shoving 
it in a side pocket of his coat) an introduction 
followed. Mr. Wilson was the typical railway 
superintendent of that day, in which such lordly 
and responsible positions were intrusted only to 
men of ripe years, whose dignified inertness 
seemed indispensable and more to be relied upon 
than the activity, feverish anxiety, and unre- 
strained zealousness of one whose years yet 
lacked the number requisite to guarantee fixed 
habits and unswerving character. He was a 
somewhat pudgy, and rather elderly looking 
gentleman, with nose glasses, lengthy side whis- 
kers and a little Astrakhan cap, cylindrical in 
shape and with no fore-piece; and was unmis- 
takably a great man, for a locomotive named for 
him stood in the yard near by, and the long 
array of capital letters on tender and cab at- 
tracted the attention and impressed one with the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 53 

belief that he must certainly be of importance 
or they would not have employed so much alpha- 
bet in naming him, and later so much paint in 
placing it upon the locomotive. 

In critical examination Mr. Wilson adjusted 
his nose glasses carefully, and looking first en- 
tirely over the top of my head, finally got the 
range and lowered the line of sight gradually 
until it rested at the feet ; then raising it quickly 
to the starting point, where he permitted it to 
rest while he spoke, said, "Well, I guess he'll get 
along all right if he knows enough, and he looks 
like mebbe he does." 

The shops across the freight yard from the 
depot, with the black smoke pouring from the 
great stack, presented a formidable appearance 
and inclined one to the belief that Mr. Wilson's 
thorough inspection was not unwarranted. The 
main buildings, as was the custom in earlier rail- 
way operation, enclosed under one roof the 
round-house, machine shop and forging depart- 
ment. At the head or front of the structure 
stood the round-house for the storage of locomo- 
tives. Not the modern crescent shaped affair of 
to-day, with turn-tables outside and switches 
leading to each stall, but a round house in the 
more strict sense of the word, or rather in this 
case a house in which the ground plan was that 
of a dodecagon, two of the faces being occupied 
by the track which passed through the figure and 
to the machine shop beyond, while each of those 



54 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

remaining represented a stall with tracks lead- 
ing at regular angles from a central turn-table. 
This round-house portion was covered by a con- 
ical-shaped roof, from the apex of which rose a 
short tower or cupola. Attached to this and ex- 
tending rearward was a large hip-roofed annex, 
embracing not only machine shop and forging 
department as stated, but boiler and engine room 
also, from which source power was generated for 
the entire works. !N"ear the boiler room was a 
small building called the rail shop, in which the 
battered ends of rails were cut off, that the rail 
might be relaid and form a more perfect joint, 
About one hundred feet from the machine shop 
was the car department, and still further on, the 
painting department. These, together with the 
lumber yard and a large building for the storage 
of seasoned lumber, embraced practically the 
whole establishment, but were enough, together 
with tracks, switches, cars, engines, etc., to thor- 
oughly confuse a verdant mind. 

When, however, one entered the great round- 
house, and a circle of locomotives stood frowning 
from all directions, with their attendants and 
wipers scurrying about ; and later still when the 
machine shop was reached, with its mass of ma- 
chinery and its network of whirling pulleys, 
shafts and belts, and their din of movement 
added to by the hammering and filing, together 
with the roar of the forges and the pounding of 
the great trip-hammer in the forge department 
beyond, it seemed that without going farther, 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 55 

there already presented itself a mass of detail 
that forbade all hope of ever mastering. It was 
an appalling demonstration of complex and un- 
familiar operations, far too much so to ever hope 
mastering; and again arose the vision of Dona- 
hue and a longing to surrender all this for a life 
of service with him at building piers. 

The village hotel, which was to become the 
writer's home, and which stood facing the depot 
and close beside the railway track, differed little 
in architecture from that employed in country 
towns throughout this section during the preced- 
ing century, being a frame structure three stories 
in height, with the first and second floors each 
opening upon a piazza which extended along the 
entire front and across the end next the railway. 
Wooden shutters protected the windows of each 
floor, and when not thus employed, resolved 
themselves into stately and dignified sentries 
pinned against the wall on either side thereof, 
or swung to and fro with each passing breeze. 
The whole (sometime since) had been painted 
white, with the exception of the shutters, which, 
of course, were green. 

From near each end of the "hip" roof and 
from its very apex there arose a low chimney, 
while several large elm trees along the front pro- 
vided formidable hitching posts for the teams of 
country patrons, and cast their sheltering shade 
upon the whole. The place bore no sign, but 
was known far and near as "Howe's Hotel." 



56 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



Approaching the steps, there emerged from the 
main hallway (with awkward and ungainly 
;— - strides, to each 

of which the 
head bowed as- 
sent) a tall, 
lank individual, 
in age past three 
score years. His 
shoulders were 
stooped, his legs 
bowed, his long 
arms dangled by 
his sides and 
his thin face 
was smoothly 
shaven, save a 
carefully pre- 
served fringe of 
beard, the ends 
of which ap- 
peared like a 
drought - suffer- 
ing hedge above 
the crest of the 
standing collar 
with which his 
throat and neck 
were fenced. In 
his hand he held a huge dinner bell, which 
upon reaching the porch he swirled about 
his head with a certain awkward grace, when 




John Howe. 



REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 57 

with sinuous curves it fell past his side, 
passing partially behind him, then returning, 
described a double loop or figure eight in 
front, thence back to the point of commence- 
ment in repetition of the act, the tones of 
the bell meanwhile marking accurate time, to 
which his lean, lank form swayed and bent in 
perfect unison. It was John Howe, the propri- 
etor, born and reared somewhere over in the 
Green Mountains of Vermont ; he had long fol- 
lowed the keeping of hotels or taverns, and for 
many years ere the writer was born, had each 
meal-time wielded the dinner bell upon this same 
old porch. Finishing his unique exhibition of 
bell ringing he started to re-enter the hall, when, 
being confronted with a new applicant for board 
and lodging, he made shift of the bell to the left 
hand, and extending his bony right, said : "How 
de do, boy, jest go right in, supper's already 
waitin' fer ye." 

The dining room bore evidence of having un- 
dergone some change from the original design, 
through the removal of two partitions, and a con- 
sequent enlargement in somewhat irregular 
form. Here from the center of each of the three 
tables arranged about the room, an ornate silver- 
plated castor towered with the dignity of its 
period. At each plate and employed for each 
of the three meals was the indispensable little 
red napkin. Crowning all was an intricate mass 
of bright-colored paper, cut in fancy designs and 
suspended from the ceiling above each table, 



58 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

forming a cosy retreat for the myriad of flies 
that also boarded here during the summer 
months. Seated at the writer's table were two 
lady school teachers, a livery stable keeper, a 
jeweler, a druggist, a store clerk and a journey- 
man tailor, representing every industry of the 
town except the saw mill and the village news- 
paper. 

The sleeping room allotted was on the up- 
per floor and at the extreme southeast end of 
the building. It had one window with seven- 
inch by nine-inch panes of glass, and opened out 
upon the stable yard below. An old green shade 
hung sullenly from a roller which would not 
roll; its lower half had been whipped about by 
the zephyrs of many seasons, until its entire sur- 
face was an intricate mass of cracks and fissures 
of arborescent form. The room was a little 
more than eight feet square and the ceiling a 
little less than eight feet high ; the furniture con- 
sisted of a bed, chair and washstancl. Upon the 
stand was a washbowl, pitcher and tallow candle, 
the latter supported in a bronzed tin candlestick. 
All were of the same renaissance as the room, 
untraceable in origin and indescribable in de- 
sign, save that they were antique; a combina- 
tion, however, then much employed, and evi- 
dently for a long time previous, in country tav- 
erns throughout this section. 

There was no closet for clothes, but numer- 
ous and various sized nails driven in the walls 
furnished ample facilities for the disposal of 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 59 

garments, which, when tastefully arranged, gave 
to the room a sort of unique decorative effect. 

Retiring for the night slumber was soon en- 
grossed with such visions and fancies as would 
naturally possess a verdant, callow, country 
youth upon his first night in the hotel of a great 
town of a thousand or more people. 

It was early yet when, arising and descend- 
ing to the office, the only sounds which broke the 
silence that still hung about the establishment 
were occasional rattlings of stove lids and cook- 
ing utensils from the direction of the kitchen, 
while from the stable beyond came exclama- 
tions of command, mingled with the spiteful 
stamp of horses' feet in protest of too severe 
grooming. Soon afterward there was detected 
the sound of unlocking and opening the bar- 
room directly beneath ; while from the window 
could be seen three old residents of the town, 
who had been patiently waiting, file silently 
down the steps. These were followed by three 
others coming singly, when for a period of half 
an hour there was heard a desultory conversa- 
tion, interspersed with two' or three brief periods 
of silence, each of which were quickly followed 
by a chorus of slight coughing and clearing of 
the throat, when the line of discussion would be 
suddenly resumed, and each time with renewed 
interest and vigor. Finally there was a general 
adjournment and the six old residents filed up 
the basement stairs and homeward to their break- 
fast, while John Howe, the proprietor, who had 



60 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 

completed the task of catering to his thirsty 
townsmen, locked the sliding door of the side- 
board behind the bar and resumed his round of 
early morning duties yet remaining. 

Salem was, upon the whole, a more than or- 
dinarily moral village, yet withal liberal. Hence 
in a spirit of fairness toward all, the village gov- 
ernment maintained a state of prohibition each 
alternate year. This was not a prohibition year, 
and the old residents who so regularly filed down 
the basement stairs during the early morning 
hours, it is perhaps needless to remark, were 
not prohibitionists, neither were they ever dis- 
gracefully or disorderly intemperate. True, 
they were men of limited means, especially dur- 
ing these alternate years of greater personal 
privilege ; for it was expensive traveling up and 
down those basement stairs, particularly to those 
who commenced the route at such an early hour. 
But they were liberty-loving and peaceful, and 
formed an array of talent, devoid of which the 
village would have largely lost its charm. 

Deacon Mathews, the weather prophet, and, 
incidentally, village blacksmith for many years, 
performed service for the community in fore- 
casting climatic changes with a degree of accu- 
racy in which the government department of 
meteorology have ever since failed. 

Steve Green, .the inventor, was the pride of 
the village, and had either created anew or im- 
proved a device for every possible use; beside 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 61 

working occasionally at other occupations, until 
at last he had exhausted the field and was now 
struggling fiercely with the time-honored yet 
elusive principle of 'perpetual motion. 

None of Steve's devices had ever found 
their way into general use, it was true, but Steve 
was a philosopher and thoroughly understood the 
difficulty of first converting the public mind to 
the acceptance of any great truth, and later their 
insane demands for the same, and so was con- 
tent, and grimly awaited the coming change in 
sentiment and rush of orders. 

These together with Brommie Lansing, Hen 
Clark, Hugh Smart and others, were old and 
well-known residents, whose loss at any time 
would have largely destroyed the village charm 
and worked an incalculable loss to John Howe. 



It was a severe undertaking for a youth of 
sixteen, fresh from the environment of the po- 
tato patch and cornfield, to enter a great machine 
shop, individualized not only in occupation, but 
somewhat in dress and manners, and run the 
gauntlet for the first time of a horde of facetious 
workmen and apprentices, and when the ordeal 
was practically ended and escape had been made 
in safety to a point half way up the stairs lead- 
ing to the office, only a few faint cries of "Low 
Bridge !" reached the ear ; for somehow they had 
already discovered the writer's identity with the 
Champlain Canal. 



02 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

The office was a peculiar affair, situated in 
the machine shop, and built against the westerly 
wall, facing the car shop. Underneath, and ris- 
ing from the machine shop floor were first built 
the tool room and pattern shop, while above and 
resting upon these was the office, the high ceil- 
ing of the machine shop providing ample eleva- 
tion, while the tall windows lighted all. It was 
a commodious apartment, severely plain in its 
furnishings. Against one wall stood a high 
desk, on the opposite side a table, near the en- 
trance a washstand with bowl and pitcher, and 
about the room a few office chairs of the simplest 
pattern. Upon the walls were a few photo- 
graphs of locomotives built at Taunton, Massa- 
chusetts, also a few others of lathes, drill presses, 
etc., manufactured at Uitchburg, in the same 
state. In each of the two corners of the room 
was built a closet, one for the storage of books 
and the hanging of coats, the other enclosed the 
shop's stock of files, neatly arranged in pigeon- 
holes and stored here from the fact that being an 
expensive class of material and extensively used, 
their consumption might be guarded and a check 
kept thereon. The control of this was still an- 
other duty of the clerk and time-keeper, and one 
which proved most annoying when later having 
lost the guardianship of his predecessor in office, 
and upon the request of some serious-looking 
yet facetious workman, found himself searching 
for a three-cornered rat-tail file. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 63 

Sometime in the life of every boy comes an 
ailment as certain and far more distressing than 
croup, whooping cough or measles, and that is 
the agonizing affliction — homesickness. 

And now as the day neared its close and the 
sun went down behind the western hills, over 
and beyond which rested the home and dwelt 
the friends and associates of childhood, the heart 
sank with it in grief and longing ; till at last dis- 
appearing below the artificial horizon, the tears 
came thick and fast, while the mellow light of 
its reflection seemed to smile at my despair. 

Mr. Kegler, the master mechanic, came up 
into the office one afternoon, washed and wiped 
his hands, then taking a cigar from his vest 
pocket and seating himself in an arm chair, 
lighted it, and, as was his daily custom, began the 
dictation of some letters. Finishing, he tilted 
his chair back against the wall, elevated his feet, 
resting them upon a corner of the table, removed 
the cigar from his mouth and blew a dense cloud 
of smoke toward the ceiling, while with the 
other hand he shielded and gently caressed a de- 
cidedly bald spot upon the top of his head. Gaz- 
ing intently for a few seconds he at last said: 
"Well, boy, how ye makin' it?" Then without 
awaiting a reply, continued, "Now, don't ye 
think it's about time you was goin' over home 
and seein' the folks ? If you don't, ye know, 
they'll begin to think mebbe yer gittin' wild. 
Then, agin, ye must be gettin' a little homesick 
by this time ; if ye ain't yer a mighty sight dif- 



64 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

f erent boy than I was the first time I went away 
from home to stay." 

A thousand thoughts now crowded in upon 
the mind, all imaginative, but joyous. The cor- 
respondence was dashed off with reckless haste, 
copied up-side down and in all sorts of ways, 
then in absent-mindedness at first addressed it 
nearly all to Comstock's Landing over on the 
Champlain Canal. Amongst the business let- 
ters, however, was an order to Henry Ruggles, a 
foundryman of Poultney, Vermont, for a mis- 
cellaneous lot of iron castings. I had taken oc- 
casion to write still another letter to an old aunt 
up near Slyborough Corners, telling her what a 
great man I had already become, and filling the 
balance of the letter with prophecies of my 
future. This I enclosed in an envelope ad- 
dressed to Mr. Ruggles, while the order for cast- 
ings was promptly forwarded by same mail to 
the aforementioned aunt. 

In due time a reply came from the appreci- 
ative old lady thanking me for my desire to 
patronize her, but wondering how on earth I got 
it into my head that she was running a foundry ; 
that she didn't have a thing in the world to sell 
the railroad company unless they could make 
use of some vegetables. 

Mr. Ruggles simply returned the letter to 
her, charitably refraining from any remark 
whatsoever. _i_ 

Railway occupation seemed the most allur- 
ing and of the greatest magnitude and import- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 65 

ance of all that occupied the field. There stood 
before the world that dazzling exhibition of 
princely attainment, Jay Gould. For it was 
upon this very Rutland and Washington Divi- 
sion, then an independent line, that he, a some- 
what unsophisticated country youth made his 
debut before the great and growing world of 
greed and gain. From his first appearance along 
the line in the guise of a wool and potato buyer, 
he suddenly developed into a full usurpation and 
control, while his younger brother, Abram 
Gould, occupied the position of clerk and time- 
keeper of these same shops. From the old files 
of the office the writer had unearthed many auto- 
graph letters of this now famed man, then reign- 
ing over the Erie Railway, the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company, and in fact the laws of his 
land. These letters were studied carefully, 
their style adopted in correspondence, and 
through some evidence and much imagination, 
that of their author in other things, having 
fully determined upon entering the great field 
of transportation, the result of which at a period 
not long to be deferred would (it seemed un- 
questionable) terminate in the acquirement of a 
large interest, and elevation to the presidency of 
one or more great trans-continental lines. 

And now these limitless, boyish and already 
wild ambitions were to be heightened through 
sudden and incomprehensible distinction. 

A disastrous fire demonstrated fully the 
weakness of the village fire department, and 



66 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

steps were taken to reinforce it. Amongst other 
appliances which were added was the old Trojan 
hook and ladder truck of Troy, N. Y., that city 
inaugurating a paid department. The railway 
company being a heavy taxpayer, and deeply 
interested in the strengthening of the depart- 
ment, it was decided to name the machine for 
the writer. 

The town constructed a building especially 
for its use with truck room on the first, or 
ground floor, and hall above. 

Deacon Mathews, Brommie Lansing and 
Steve Green each became honorary members. 
The deacon selected dates for parades and other 
out-door demonstrations, besides securing repre- 
sentation at all the church picnics. 

Brommie took charge of all parliamentary 
proceedings, while Steve Green acted as consult- 
ing engineer and general mechanical adviser, 
and in a remarkably short time introduced so 
many new improvements and attachments to the 
machine that the membership had to be enlarged 
in order to haul it about. 

None of the three in view of their years 
ranked particularly high in actual service, es- 
pecially on high buildings, though in basement 
work they still showed excellent form. 

When this establishment was completed and 
occupied, so dizzy a height of fame and honor 
had been reached it seemed that to climb higher 
would simply separate one from any existing 
realm of equality to be found in earthly associa- 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 67 

tion. There were, however, it was determined, 
an extremely limited number of human beings 
in the world who enjoyed a like distinction ; but 
for this I should have dwelt alone, shrouded in 
the dense and dignified solitude of unequaled 
greatness. 



CHAPTER IV. 

When one considers the wild, ungovernable 
desire and the reckless attempts on the part of 
the vast multitudes of beings, of mature years 
and occupying all stations in life, to reach Cali- 
fornia and its so-called golden shores during the 
earlier days thereof, a limited degree of like fas- 
cination becomes pardonable in a youth scarce 
out of his teens, though twenty-five years have 
elapsed since those more irresistible influences 
which the early excitement exerted; and it is 
quite possible that few of the youths of to-day, 
who have listened to and read the graphic recitals 
of those gold-plated episodes and experiences of 
'49 and '50, but that has a soul so live as to per- 
mit the fires being rekindled from the smoulder- 
ing embers of a past generation's fancy. And 
now when it was arranged that the writer should 
go to that far-away alluring center — San Fran- 
cisco — and succeed the brother of that great man, 
Jay Gould, as purveyor of the Pacific Mail 
Steamship Company, all heretofore seeming 
greatness in the little village of Salem sank into 
insignificance, and a locomotive on the Rutland 
and Washington Division, or even the fire-red 
hook and ladder truck in its palatial quarters 
over on a side street in the rear of the railway 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. b^ 

freight house, seemed insignificant apparatus 
compared to a steamship. 

An ocean steamship, as near as could be de- 
termined, differed widely from a canal boat, 
most especially in its motive power; and as a 
canal boat was the limit of the writer's experi- 
ence with large vessels, the water route to Cali- 
fornia was chosen, that the corporation war then 
raging between the Pacific Mail and the Pan- 
ama Transit Company might meanwhile find an 
end, and incidentally to gain a thorough knowl- 
edge of steamships generally. 

The morning of May 2d, 1876, dawned 
bright and balmy. The steamship "Colon," of 
the Pacific Mail line, crowding its massive, tow- 
ering form close beside the wharf, seemed some 
silent, monstrous beast of burden, patiently 
waiting at the door of its master. 

Finally the signal was sounded, calling pas- 
sengers aboard and warning visitors to disem- 
bark. The gang plank was removed, the great 
hawsers were cast loose, while a blustering, 
wheezing, snorting little tug, away down below, 
skurried about the ship's sides, pushing here and 
pulling there, much with the same result it 
seemed that a minnow might attempt to crowd 
and shove a whale. Soon, however, the great 
mass moved, and, clearing the dock and having 
her nose pushed out into the stream, the officious 
little tug cast loose and turned homeward with 
an air of extreme and undisguised importance. 



70 BEMINTSCENT EAMBLINGS. 

At once the Colon was under her own steam and 
moving gently but swiftly down the bay. 

From a quiet nook aft upon the upper deck, 
there was little to disturb the reverie of a ver- 
dant youthful traveler, who, watching the great 
city fast becoming lost in the haze and distance, 
felt the dread sensation of a great gulf widening 
between himself and the only land of which he 
possessed any absolute knowledge ; while a sud- 
den, serious fancy filled the mind and rapidly 
entrenched itself, that possibly all this was a 
far more reckless undertaking than it appeared ; 
when the engines gradually ceased their move- 
ment, and sudden, though temporary, relief 
came from the hope that possibly they had for- 
gotten something and would have to return to 
shore, when, escaping, a safer route might be 
adopted. 

It was, however, but the disembarkment of 
the pilot. And while the little boat which con- 
veyed him tossed merrily away en route thereto, 
a sleepy, listless pilot boat nearby slowly and 
gently rose and fell and bowed its graceful form 
in dignified adieu. 

Again the engines were in motion and the 
Colon plunged sternly forward and out upon the 
broad Atlantic. 

Rapidly the coast line grew more and more 
dim, till finally the sky closed down upon the 
surface of the sea. The Colon was now indulg- 
ing in certain and decided movements that dif- 
fered widely from those of boats on the Cham- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 71 

plain canal, even in the worst storms. The up- 
per extremities of her masts like the points of 
great dividers, marked ever increasing segments 
of circles upon the sky, as, rolling from side to 
side, she rose majestically to the summit of a 
great swell, seemed to pause for an instant, then, 
slightly shuddering, sank away into its accom- 
panying trough. 

Occupying the same state room with the 
writer was one Tom Forrest, a miner and pros- 
pector, engaged in the search for gold somewhere 
up about "Dutch Flats," in Placer County, Cal- 
ifornia. Forrest was a big fellow with a heavy, 
drooping moustache, a very loud shirt, and a 
fancy vest, across the front of which was sus- 
pended a massive watch chain formed of gold 
nuggets taken from the auriferous sands at 
Dutch Flats. 

Alluring tales of gold washing in California 
had long been read with feverish interest, and, 
later, the fabulous doings of the great "Corn- 
stock" in Nevada ; until mining for the precious 
metals had long filled the mind with what has 
since been proven the most romantic and falla- 
cious of ideas. Forrest was not long in detect- 
ing this, and not having the heart to blot and 
blur this mind picture through an application of 
truth, charitably intensified these visionary im- 
pressions, creating a joyous confirmation of pre- 
vious views, together with a stock of amusement 
for himself. 



72 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Upon a bench by the side of the rail, far aft 
on the upper deck and well removed from the 
ship's passengers, sat a lad of twenty years or 
less, poring intently over a volume which rested 
upon his knee, while wreaths of tobacco smoke 
from a huge Meerschaum pipe curled for a time 
lovingly about his head, then, caught by the light 
breeze, floated quickly away over the ship's 
stern. He was short in stature, of dark com- 
plexion, neat in appearance, and, as could be 
seen, rigidly methodical in manner; upon the 
whole a queer, old-fashioned-appearing lad, 
and apparently at home upon the sea. By his 
side upon the seat rested a large, home-made to- 
bacco pouch, from which at intervals (after 
knocking the ashes from the huge and elaborate 
Meerschaum, then fondling it lovingly, and 
viewing it in different lights admiringly, as he 
noted its progress in colorings) he would re- 
charge the same. 

In proportions and pretensions the pipe dif- 
fered so widely from the boy as to strikingly in- 
dividualize him; and in the gentle and loving 
guardianship he exercised over it his ruling 
weakness, if such existed, was apparent. 

It was a day in which the possession of a 
Meerschaum pipe was the rage ; and long before, 
up in Salem, entrancing tales were told of an 
a old countryman" who resided several miles 
away, just over the line in Vermont and well 
up in the Green Mountain range, and who was 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 73 

reputed to be the possessor of a most wonder- 
fully colored Meerschaum. 

In time the writer became its owner, at no 
doubt many times its actual value. Its color- 
ing, however, had in no sense been overrated, 
though the older and more knowing ones shook 
their heads, and inclined to the belief of its hav- 
ing been produced artificially; which, if true, 
of course, condemned it, as amongst the Meer- 
schaum-smoking tribe, the great value lay in the 
coloring having been produced through absolute 
use, and, better still, through the individual ef- 
fort of the owner. 

Armed with the alluring pipe, and design- 
edly sauntering along the upper deck and toward 
the point where the lad was sitting, sidewise 
with one elbow resting on the rail while he 
smoked and read, a match was requested for the 
sole purpose of attracting his attention. Turn- 
ing quickly and reaching in his pocket, he pro- 
duced instead a percussion pipe-lighting affair, 
which in itself was an evidence of the boy's in- 
dividuality. Everyone used matches — they 
were quite too conventional for him. Present- 
ing it he raised his eyes for the first time, his 
attitude pleasant though quite unconcerned for 
the instant, until catching sight of the pipe, his 
face beamed beneath a veil of sudden surprise, 
while involuntarily he half rose from his seat in 
his eagerness to more closely view the object of 
his interest, which he examined long and crit- 
ically, occasionally casting glances of compari- 



74 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

son at his own which lay upon the seat. With 
a lingering gaze he returned the pipe, and pick- 
ing up his own polished it gently and affection- 
ately with the palm of his hand, while he cast 
upon it a long, admiring look, as if in assurance 
that his admiration had not entirely gone forth 
to another. His name was Edward Coleman; 
he was the son of a manufacturer of ship chan- 
dlers' goods in Providence, Rhode Island. They 
dealt largely with San Francisco dealers, and 
Edward was journeying thence to visit their 
clients, most of whom they had never met, and, 
incidentally, undertake the collection of a few 
accounts, the payment of which had been too 
long deferred. 



Talking and smoking on the upper deck until 
late the second night out, the wind suddenly 
rose, the sea increased in roughness, and the 
ship rolling and pitching significantly, we 
knocked the ashes from the rival pipes and 
sought the seclusion of the staterooms below. 

Forrest had already retired and was sleep- 
ing soundly; when by the dim light from the 
passage a maiden attempt was engaged in of the 
difficult and undignified task of disrobing and 
retiring in the stateroom of a heavily rolling and 
plunging ship. Finally the feat was accom- 
plished, and a fairly good record as a beginner 
made; Forrest remained undisturbed, and no 
damage seemed to have been sustained save a 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 75 

few bumps and bruises upon the person of the 
writer, which were wholly affairs of his own. 

Clinging tenaciously for a time to the berth 
as the ship rolled in the direction that tended to 
deposit one upon the floor, sleep finally pre- 
vailed. 

The first gray dawn of approaching day had 
spread itself over the turbulent and boundless 
waters, when awakening, there could be seen 
(each time the ship careened to the side from 
which the port gave a view) the great expanse 
of sea, as it heaved and tossed in endless and in- 
describable convulsion, while the hurried foot- 
steps of the seamen on the deck above, the howl- 
ing of the wind,' and the spiteful fusilade of 
raindrops upon the glass, contrasted strongly 
with the soft, gentle atmosphere of the evening 
preceding. It was a storm off Cape Hatter as. 
At regular intervals a terrible rumbling, accom- 
panied by a shudder of the ship ensued, as 
plunging into the trough of the sea her propeller 
was raised from the water, and in its released 
condition, tore wildly about until meeting with 
resistance through immersion, it wrenched the 
old ship's vertebrae much like that of a scared 
mule when he suddenly reaches the length of his 
picket rope. 

Forrest now turned over upon his back, and 
yawning, stretched both arms above his head, 
then muttering a disapproval of the weather, 
settled himself for a morning nap. Then con- 
fiding to him the knowledge of a certain dis- 



76 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

tressed feeling, he opened his eyes for an in- 
stant, then closing them again, shrugged his 
shoulder, whereby to draw the covering more 
closely about his neck, and remarked disinter- 
estedly, "Oh, you're seasick, that's all the matter 
with you." This was sufficient, so far the 
thought had not occurred. The suggestion was 
simply awaited to fully develop the complaint. 
There was now no time to be spent in further 
consideration of the matter; arising and hur- 
riedly dressing preparatory to reaching the deck, 
the operation was scarce commenced, when the 
conclusion was reached to remain below. "No 
reference need be made to the scenes which fol- 
lowed during the succeeding two hours, other 
than that they were the busiest in the experience 
of any ocean traveler. Later the cabin boy en- 
tered, hurriedly diagnosed the case, and quickly 
returned with the invariable and stock article of 
diet, toast and tea. A teaspoonful of the tea was 
sipped gingerly, the toast sniffed daintily and 
the feast ended. Then lying back in the berth, 
with closed eyes, a rigid course of treatment was 
commenced in suggestive therapeutics ; repeated 
matches made of mind defense against physical 
attack, and every match lost, including all re- 
maining nourishment. Then arose and dressed 
with a view to reaching the upper deck, half hop- 
ing that some great, merciful, motherly old wave 
would lap me up and bear me away to final rest. 



BEMINISCENT EAMBLI]N T GS. 77 

The storm raged fiercely until long past mid- 
day, when it slackened its fury, and as the 
shades of night fell, had fully ceased. Then 
the moon rose and peered out over the vast 
bosom of the Atlantic, which as though not yet 
recovered from the exhaustion of the struggle, 
rose and fell, heaving its mighty chest in linger- 
ing distress. Steadily the old ship bore on 
toward the glowing tropics and less troubled wa- 
ters, until at last, passing the "Antilles," en- 
tered the Caribbean Sea. The weather was now 
exceedingly warm. The sun, near the zenith, 
shed its fierce rays upon the mirrored surface of 
a listless lazy sea, whose only movement was 
the never-ending swell, which now rose so lan- 
guidly and sank away with such abandon as to 
each time seem incapable of again repeating the 
operation. 

Awnings were stretched above the upper 
deck by day, beneath whose friendly shelter 
from the sun's rays, lounged a seeming and sud- 
denly reconstructed race. The ambition, vivac- 
ity and chatter of these people of the North was 
gone, and in most negligee attire they sat about 
in quiet, surrendering themselves at frequent in- 
tervals, to the seductive influence of the "siesta" 
of a southern clime. It was only when the sun 
had sunk beneath the horizon, and darkness 
(which is here preceded by little twilight) had 
fallen over all, that any pretense of interest in 
anything save sleep and silence, was manifest 
amongst any, except the crew. Then a cooler 



78 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

breeze seemed to fan them into consciousness, 
while a beautifully phosphorescent sea caught 
the eye and lured them into animated expres- 
sion. Such nights as these were enjoyed late 
upon the decks, smoking, talking and trapping 
the flying fish, with which the Caribbean 
swarms, which latter was accomplished by sus- 
pending an empty flour barrel with a cord at- 
tached to either end, at a point near as possible 
to the surface of the sea. Then the open end, 
which projected outward from the ship's side, 
was raised until the barrel formed a slight angle 
with the surface of the water. A light having 
first been placed in the bottom of the barrel, the 
curious little creatures are attracted by its bright 
rays so near them, and raising from the water, 
fly toward it, plunging headlong into the recep- 
tacle. 

Sailing on equatorward there at last ap- 
peared above the southern horizon, and now be- 
held for the first time by most on board, that 
bright constellation, the Southern Cross. 

For a moment possessed of the joy and in- 
terest born only of the discovery of some unfa- 
miliar work of God, there at last came the real- 
ization of being far from home. In fact, of 
having actually sailed out, and away from be- 
neath the celestial ceiling decorations of our 
own land, and under those of another. 

Each day dawned, and developed its usual 
heat, with possibly a few degrees added, until 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 79 

far away the haze (or aqueous vapor generated 
through the intensity of the sun's rays upon the 
surface of these equatorial waters) obliterated 
the line of demarkation between sea and sky. It 
was near the noon hour of an especially heated 
day when the "lookout" in the "crow's nest" 
cried "Ship ahoy !" and ere long there was seen 
from the upper deck the dim outlines of a sail 
far away to "larboard." The steamer's course, 
though bearing in toward her slightly, would 
pass her at least three miles to "starboard." The 
sullen, oppressive stillness of a dead calm, made 
more oppressive by the intense heat, hung over 
all. She was a schooner-rigged craft of rather 
large proportions. Every stitch of sail was set, 
while the whole hung listless and drooping. 
And though she bore a signal of distress, a care- 
ful inspection with glasses determined nothing 
further than that she was helpless in a "dead 
calm," and that her crew, so far as detected, 
were tropical natives of the blackest type. 

The Colon changed her course, slackened 
speed, and bearing down upon her, came to a 
full stop something over half a mile distant. 
Meanwhile a boat put off from the sailer, which 
by the time the Colon had fully halted, came 
alongside. It contained six men and eight wa- 
ter barrels. As the boat's crew climbed up the 
ship's side, and one after another stepped on 
deck, the passengers now aroused from their in- 
ertness, crowded curiously about them. 

Aside from the morbid curiosity of a lay- 



80 REMINISCENT RAMBLINOS. 

man, they were indeed subjects of deep interest 
to the naturalist and physiologist. Each of 
these beings were nude, save a piece of light cot- 
ton fabric wrapped about the loins. Their 
bodies and arms were long, their legs short, 
while the cranial and facial development was 
far more distorted than that of the purest type 
of African negro. 

The nasal organ scarce manifested itself, 
save in the nostrils, which when standing erect, 
presented the fullest view of the openings. 
The ship's surgeon standing near, and though 
less expressive of his interest and observations 
than others, was to the extent of his greater 
knowledge in such matters, far more observing ; 
amongst other things, calling attention to one of 
these creatures who stood nearest, presenting a 
side view. Through the limited folds of the 
light fabric drawn tightly about his loins, there 
was plainly visible a slight protuberance, located 
at the lowest extremity- of the vertebrae, then 
more closely observing the balance, there was 
found in each to a greater or less degree, the 
same physiological phenomena. 

Through later and more convincing observa- 
tion the fact was determined that the vertebrae 
of these beings extended downward and slightly 
away from the body, so far past the point of ter- 
mination in examples of physical perfection as 
to render the occurrence plainly visible through 
the folds of their attire. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 81 

In the heretofore orthodox environment of 
the writer, the observations and theory of 
Charles Darwin regarding the evolution of spe- 
cies had for some time produced a sensation. 
He had cautiously read much of it. Cautiously 
it may be stated, as the exhibition of such taste 
tended rather to handicap one in the region 
roundabout. Extended discussions were fre- 
quent on the part of a misguided mass of 
"special creation" supporters, and always in rid- 
icule and condemnation of the preposterous, 
irrational teachings of this crazy blasphemous 
individual. 

Evolution having so far proceeded that the 
principle of bodily torture was no longer prac- 
ticed upon such as dared to manifest the slight- 
est degree of rational thought upon any subject 
adverse to Scripture (which properly inter- 
preted, seemed to pretty thoroughly cover the 
entire field of inquiry), Mr. Darwin lived, la- 
bored, observed and uttered his evidence at a 
period in which, fortunately, he escaped the 
stake, and through charity, became the recipi- 
ent of all manner of ridicule instead. His an- 
cestral anthropoid ape, and especially its tail, 
grew into a huge joke, though to the more de- 
vout, a somewhat ghastly one. 

Meeting in the Caribbean Sea these types of 
so peculiar a species, yet human, the mind 
thenceforth dwelt yet more seriously upon the 
teachings of Darwin ; to the end, as the reader 
may have already deduced from the tenor of 



82 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

foregoing speech, that the early impressions 
gained have not wholly failed in augmenting 
their fortification through unprejudiced in- 
quiry since indulged in. 

As they spoke no language understood by 
any on board, with the exception of a lim- 
ited amount of very imperfect Spanish, little 
information was obtained from the becalmed 
mariners save that they had for a long time been 
unable to make any headway on account of lack 
of wind, and that they were destitute of water. 
The Captain ordered their casks filled, which 
done, they pushed off from the ship's side, and 
the Colon was again under way, headed for As- 
pinwall. 

bearing the eastern coast of the Isthmus of 
Panama (and ere the coast line was sighted), 
there came wafted upon a gentle breeze now 
blowing off shore, the faint, delightful odor of 
the tropical jungle of the Isthmus and its fruits. 
Later, the dim coast line became discernible, 
and shortly thereafter anchor was cast for the 
time being, a short way off the dock. Aspin- 
wall has little that may be called harbor, it be- 
ing practically open sea. 

Landing, and a couple of days being re- 
quired for transfer of cargo across the isthmus 
by that forty-seven miles of standard gauge rail- 
way of the Panama Transit Company (the earn- 
ings of which per mile, next to the Virginia and 
Truckee Railway of Nevada, were the greatest 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 83 

of any railway on earth), one was enabled to 
devote some considerable time to exploration. 
The slovenly, though somewhat interesting town, 
its streets filled with a semi-nude horde, com- 
prising both sexes, who lounged and strolled in 
all places, uninvited and uninterfered with, im- 
pressed one as a representation of democracy in 
its fullest form; or rather, the idleness and in- 
ertness that marks dethronement, and the await- 
ing of the end. Upon the principal street stood 
a well-modeled statue of Columbus, beneath 
whose extended and protecting arm crouched the 
representation of a pure type of the Isthmus 
native. 

For the moment one gazed upon the allegor- 
ical structure, and with poetic mind, embraced 
the sentiment it bore. Then looking away upon 
the great steamship crowding the pier, the rail- 
way with its locomotives snorting their assertion 
of privilege and the little land itself about to 
be rent in twain by the cutting of the Panama 
Canal, the veil lifted, the comedy appeared, and 
smiling thoughtfully at the monumental joke, 
passed to a side view of the figure, and raising 
the eyes to the summit of Christopher's towering 
form, smiled again, for there, plastered over the 
great area of his expansive cheek clung a huge 
quid of tobacco, hurled at him, no doubt, by 
another irreverent detector of the farce. 

Journeying inland from the town into the 
dense jungle of tropical vegetation, filled with 
the noisy life of bird and beast, was an experi- 



84 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

ence never to be forgotten by the visitor from a 
colder clime. Probably in no section of the 
earth does vegetation nourish more luxuriantly 
or grow more rapidly than here. It is said that 
in making preparations for the survey and cross- 
sectioning of the canal, that a swath over one 
half mile in width was cut along the line and 
the ground laid bare. Much of the way the 
tangle of grass and vines were so dense that one 
was supported five feet from the ground in pass- 
ing over it, and that in less than two years fol- 
lowing the removal of this growth, the track was 
invisible, save from the cutting of the larger 
and slower growth of trees. 

The railway connecting Aspinwall and Pan- 
ama, though penetrating a wild land, was of the 
earliest construction, having been commenced in 
1849 (Totten and Trautwine, engineers), and 
completed several years later, after the greatest 
difficulties and loss of life which ever attended 
the building of an equal length of line. Nu- 
merous nationalities were employed as work- 
men, and the mortality was so great that at its 
completion it was a saying, that the bodies of 
the dead were sufficient to "tie" the road over its 
entire length. The undertaking was prompted 
by the great gold discoveries in California, and 
the indescribable stampede to the golden shores 
of the Pacific. 

During the year 1876 a French commission, 
consisting of Lieut. Wyse and others, was sent 
out to investigate the feasibility of constructing 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 85 

a ship canal across the Isthmus, connecting the 
two oceans. Two years later the Columbian 
Government granted to "The Civil International 
Oceanic Canal Co." the exclusive privilege of 
constructing the canal, at the same time neu- 
tralizing both the canal and its ports. In 1879, 
or the year following the act, M. de Lesseps took 
the matter in hand, to the end that actual con- 
struction commenced two years later. This 
great undertaking was by no means as it may 
seem, a modern idea. A proposal to pierce the 
Isthmus of Darien was made in 1520 by Angel 
San Vedra. Cortez in 1550 caused a survey to 
be made across the Isthmus of Tehuantepec for 
a like purpose, while Antoine Galvao presented 
four different routes, one being over the iden- 
tical ground selected by the French Company, 
and which is practically that of the railway, as 
follows : Leaving Colon, it intercepts the Cha- 
gres, following its northern bank to Barbacous, 
where it crosses, following its southern bank 
for a distance, thence pursuing a tributary of 
the Obispo to the Culebra Col, from which it de- 
scends straight to Panama, while the canal in 
its location down the Pacific slope follows the 
valley of the Eio Grande. It has a length of 
fifty-four miles, or seven miles greater than the 
railway, owing to its necessity of more closely 
contouring the country. 

Here at the Pacific terminus of both railway 
and canal lies the quaint old city of Panama, 
the oldest European city upon this Continent, 



86 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

and during the eleventh and twelfth centuries, 
the most strongly fortified of any of South 
America. Originally founded in 1518 by Pe- 
dro Arias Davila, and built upon a site a short 
distance from the present one, it grew into a rich 
and prosperous town, abounding with luxurious 
dwellings and other evidences of wealth, when 
in 1617 it was raided by Morgan's Buccaneers, 
pillaged and burned, amidst revolting scenes of 
murder and rapine. Two years later a new 
city was founded upon the present site by Villa- 
courte. 

It is situated upon a coral reef which ex- 
tends far out into the bay, and reaches so near 
the surface of the water that at lowest tide large 
areas near the city front are exposed. The ver- 
tical height here measured by the two extremes 
of tide exceeds fifteen feet, or more than six 
times that of the Atlantic coast at Aspinwall. 

This matter of difference in tides caused 
much calculation in the design of the canal as to 
the best results to be obtained, from either ob- 
structing the canal with a "lock," or creating a 
grade and encountering the resultant current. 



CHAPTEE V. 

Late at night in the harbor of Panama, the 
chains rattled as the anchor was hoisted at the 
bow of the Grenada, the ship of the Pacific 
Mail line that was to convey us to San Fran- 
cisco, and her propeller began to chum the 
waters of a new sea as she poked her nose swiftly 
out into the broad Pacific. Like some carrier 
pigeon as it soars upward to a dizzy height ere 
it shapes it course for the homeward route, so 
did the Grenada push so far out into the mag- 
nificent waste of waters,, that when morning 
dawned and she had headed northward, the coast 
line of the Isthmus was lost to view. Over a 
magnificent sea, disturbed only by the long 
heavy swell, she sailed northward, passing the 
coasts of Nicaragua, Honduras and Guatemala. 
Then heading shoreward, entered the beautiful 
harbor of that seemingly unworthy, uninviting 
little town Acupulco, on the western coast of 
Mexico. 

It was near the middle of a terrifically hot 
afternoon, when the Grenada dropped her 
anchor in the little land-locked bay, some 
distance from the shore. Occasionally a great 
shark rolled its side lazily to the surface, as a 
quantity of garbage was cast overboard from the 
kitchen, which, together with a score or more of 



88 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

naked native boys who swam about the ship, 
eager to recover coins which the more curious 
and enthusiastic of the passengers might be in- 
duced to toss into the sea, seemed to constitute 
the ship's entire reception committee, and the 
only apparent life of the harbor and its sur- 
roundings. The little town lay listless and 
sleeping at the foot of the amphitheatre into 
which the bay extended. Its low adobe build- 
ings and huts of uniform style of architecture, 
from whence no sign of life proceeded, whose 
sunburned walls shimmered and glared from be- 
neath the fierce rays of the sun, as they rested 
like homes of the dead upon the shores of a glis- 
tening, simmering, silent sea. In the smoking 
room of the ship a thermometer registered 118 
degrees Fahrenheit as a party started to row 
ashore. High up above the town and overlook- 
ing the bay, was perched an old fort, now chiefly 
used as a prison. A revolution was in progress 
in the district, as at all times somewhere in the 
republic, and especially on its frontier, the Pa- 
cific coast. For the controlling hand of Por- 
forio Diaz, that greatest of modern rulers, had 
not yet reduced the turbulent territory to its 
present peaceful, patriotic condition. About 
the town there was little of interest. Its streets 
were as empty as they appeared from the ship. 
Through open doorways people might be seen 
in scanty attire, engaged not in the attempt of, 
keeping cool, but in that of preventing them- 
selves from becoming cooked well done. Wait- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 89 

ing to be taken on board were a few passengers 
from the City of Mexico, who had journeyed 
overland with pack and saddle animals. At the 
fort on the hill, barefooted and half naked sen- 
tries paced dignifiedly about the court, when not 
sleeping in the shady recesses of its inner wall. 
Through low-grated windows, opening upon a 
level with the court pavement, one peered into 
the dungeons below. The sight was revolting 
and the odor sickening. Crowded into these 
dimly lighted, unventilated subterranean recep- 
tacles were masses of half starved, half naked, 
half suffocated, filth-begrimed and vermin-in- 
fested wretches, possessed of no sanitary con- 
veniences, were fed like swine from a common 
trough, and in sleeping upon the stone floor, 
owing to their numbers, each to some extent 
overlaid another. From a grated apartment 
opening into the court was seen the beckonings 
of a man whose face, despite its uncleanliness, 
gave unmistakable evidence of his Saxon in- 
heritance. His speech bore the unmistakable 
accent of an Englishman. He was clad in the 
shirt and trousers of a seaman, and from pro- 
tected portions it might be seen that they were 
of a flannel originally white. Reciting the 
story of his misfortune, he claimed to have been 
a seaman on board a British vessel, which put- 
ting into Acupulco and being at anchor for a 
few days, he came ashore one night, became in- 
toxicated, invaded the scene of a Mexican dance, 
got well beaten up, and awoke next morning in 



90 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

durance vile, where he had remained ever since. 
The ship sailed that very night, or early in the 
morning. ~Not understanding the language, he 
had been unable to gain any information, either 
as to the charge against him, or the length of 
time for which he was sentenced. He was pen- 
niless, and though his incarceration was distress- 
ing, his liberty under the circumstances, and for 
the time at least, would but add to the embar- 
rassment of his situation. 

Poking a contribution of small coins and 
smoking tobacco through the iron bars of his se- 
cure though undesirable apartment, he was left 
to a further and more exact determination of 
the enormity of his transgression as deduced 
from the particular degree of hardness of which 
his way was possessed. 

Putting out of the little harbor, the Gren- 
ada again headed northward, touching at Man- 
zanillo, thence on to Mazatlan, which, though the 
largest of Mexico's Pacific ports, has no harbor, 
but "lighters" its freight and passengers to and 
from large vessels, at times a most exciting and 
hazardous undertaking. 

Prom here the course lies almost due west 
across the mouth of the Gulf of California, 
whereby to clear Cape San Lucas, the southern 
extremity of the peninsula of Lower California, 
after which, and with a temperature now sud- 
denly reduced some twenty degrees, she again 
shaped her course northward for a straightaway 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 91 

run to San Francisco. Little occurred hence- 
forth to even arouse the enthusiasm of youthful 
and verdant travelers. It was felt that strange 
lands and unusual scenes were now passed. The 
Southern Cross had disappeared, while Polaris 
and the Great Dipper rose to their accustomed 
places in the north. 

Later one bright morning, after hugging the 
coast for some hours, a small rocky island was 
passed lying some distance to starboard, and so 
close to shore as to seem part of the mainland, 
and from which came the yelping of innumer- 
able seals, which, immediately afterward, the 
Grenada, slackening speed, rounded gracefully 
and pointed her prow toward a suddenly dis- 
closed and narrow opening in the coast line. It 
was the Golden Gate. How the writer strug- 
gled to embrace this opportunity, and more fully 
employ the seeming brief period for observation 
of that of which, through poetic tales of Califor- 
nia, he had viewed for so long in youthful vision, 
pictures so false and fanciful that now there 
was felt a tinge of disappointment, in that no 
gilded surfaces reflected back the bright rays of 
the morning sun, or in fancy swinging upon its 
massive hinges, an actual gate of the precious 
metal clasped within its golden embrace another 
Argonaut. Slowly steaming up the beautiful 
bay, then rounding " Telegraph Hill," the long 
water front of the city, fringed with a tangle of 
shipping, and bristling with the masts of a hun- 
dred vessels, stretched in front and far away, 



92 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

until ^indefinable and lost in haze and distance. 
Stealthily the Grenada crept along the line, until 
reaching the opening awaiting her, she floated 
silently in, gave a few convulsive turns of the 
propeller, then ground her massive side against 
the creaking piles, her extremities were made 
fast, when listlessly and lovingly she at last 
nestled beside the golden shores of California. 

San Francisco's earthquakes possessed nat- 
urally a peculiar and exciting fascination for 
the youth who had read Mark Twain's account 
of one, occurring several years previous, and was 
really one of the experiences that was impa- 
tiently awaited. And now but a few days had 
elapsed when a shock occurred, which, though it 
seemed to have little effect on San Francisco or 
its buildings, absolutely shattered and destroyed 
an air castle which the writer had spent long 
days and nights in building. A decision had 
been reached whereby Pacific mail passed under 
the management of the Panama Transit Co. and 
Gould officials were no more. 

San Francisco had many years since 
emerged from that tornado of excitement occa- 
sioned by the deluge of gold derived from its 
placers, and was now submerged in another little 
less in its magnitude and uncontrollable frenzy. 

The great "Comstock" lode of Nevada, by 
far the greatest individual occurrence of pre- 
cious metal ores the world has yet ever seen, 
was then resting near the zenith of its fame and 



EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 93 

production. The great "Bonanza" was devel- 
oping a magnitude that baffled the most expert 
in their attempt to determine its limit. Indeed, 
the evidence was so great that the whole finan- 
cial world for the time stopped in its mad ca- 
reer, while over the silent glances of inquiry 
they cast one upon another, there hung the hush 
of palsied fright lest here might result a produc- 
tion so great as to destroy the function of both 
gold and silver as money metals. In the midst 
of all this the stocks of these holdings soared up- 
ward, faltering now and then and fluttering 
back toward earth again, then with redoubled 
strength darting to a greater height than hereto- 
fore, until the public, beguiled into a firm belief 
in the infinity of their upward movement, 
bought and sold and bought again, as the fraud- 
ulent information, and self opinionated judg- 
ment they possessed, taught them the proper 
changes were to make. Thus, the mad mass of 
mixed mankind tore and trampled each other in 
their frenzied attempt to get something for noth- 
ing — thus madly rushed and grabbed and jos- 
tled, for judgment had lost its sway. Fortunes 
were made and, as since learned, lost daily. 
One heard only of those made. We seldom do. 
The making of a fortune through specula- 
tion in these stocks seemed to all a simple mat- 
ter. The mind dwelt lovingly upon the possi- 
bility of acquiring one of so great magnitude. 
A multitude of equally ridiculous theories and 
fancies filled the mind, and yet why so ridicu- 



94 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

lous ? Had not (but the day preceding, so to 
speak) Flood and O'Brien been saloon keepers 
here in San Francisco, and John Mackey and 
Jim Fair but ordinary miners behind the pick 
and drill ? And had one met with the success 
that fancy painted (like in their case), would 
not the world have resounded with murmurs of 
admiration at the accomplishment ? But fail- 
ure being the result, one had of course lost his 
money gambling in stocks — the most senseless, 
inexcusable, depraved form of gambling. This 
same world said so, hence it must be true, irrec- 
oncilable as its two views of the matter may 
seem. Yet one may here ask, what title shall 
we apply to the entire competitive system of 
traffic as forever engaged in by the world at 
large ? But a brief season ,spent in the midst of 
this mad and motley throng was required to dis- 
courage the writer in further attempt at acquir- 
ing a sudden fortune on the Pacific Coast, and 
folding his tent and stealing silently out and 
away from this deadly yet infatuating atmos- 
phere of disaster and distress, he, one soft sum- 
mer evening not long thereafter, stepped from 
the train at Salem. The sun was just setting 
and seemed to mark not only the close of day, 
but of adventure also. 



The deep snows and chilling blasts of the 
following JSTew England winter brought new 
longings for the bright sunshine, magnificent 
distances, and free, unfettered existence of the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 95 

Far West; when, again influenced by exciting 
and fanciful tales, and the existence of gold and 
silver mining, which as ever possessed its charm, 
Colorado, then but recently admitted to the 
Union, and known as the Centennial State, had 
little competition from California in its influ- 
ence upon one whose experiences with the latter 
had been of the usual sort. 

The now beautiful city of Denver was at 
this time but a big, overgrown village, present- 
ing race, social types and customs, which though 
strange, were indeed interesting and attractive. 
Then, the great area embraced by the common- 
wealth was about equally divided in its occupa- 
tion and uses between the red man and the 
white man. Of the Indians there had been 
mainly two tribes in Colorado. The Utes, oc- 
cupying the entire mountainous portions, and 
the Arapahoes, who dwelt east of the front 
range and upon the great plains which stretched 
away to the Missouri River. 

These plain and mountain tribes had ever 
been at war with each other. The Arapahoes hav- 
ing a taste for the deer, grouse and fish of the 
mountainous Utes, and the Utes in turn having 
a longing for the antelope and buffalo, they 
were led to continuous poaching and incessant 
warfare. 

The Arapahoes upon the plains were in the 
direct pathway of the pioneer in his pilgrimage 
westward, and to vary his otherwise monotonous 
life, engaged zealously in "busting" Pike's Peak 



96 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

expeditions, so zealously in fact, that, as a final 
result in the struggle for the survival of the fit- 
test as between the pioneer and the Arapahoe, 
the Arapahoe was at last wiped out, and that 
but a short time prior to the writer's arrival, 
through what was known as the "Sand Creek" 
massacre, conducted by one Col. Chivington, 
who divided his talents between services for the 
government in frontier warfare, and preaching 
the gospel to frontier wayfarers, and a familiar 
figure upon the streets of Denver for many years 
thereafter. 

The Utes, however, remained practically un- 
interfering and interfered with. Few in the 
search for gold or otherwise, had as yet at- 
tempted any considerable operations near the 
borders of their domain. Mining operations 
were chiefly confined to the counties of Clear 
Creek, Gilpin and Boulder, which lay near the 
border of the great plain. Denver had grown to 
such exceeding proportions as compared with 
the outside settlements, mining camps, military 
posts, etc., that it became as attractive to the 
Indians as to the white man, to the end that as 
late as the writer's arrival early in the year 
1877, bands of Utes, sometimes a hundred or 
more in number, might frequently have been 
seen riding through the streets of the town, 
while quite considerable was the trade they fur- 
nished in the purchase of guns, ammunition and 
gaudy trinkets. The Arapahoes no longer ap- 
peared in street scenes, for reasons hereinbefore 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 97 

stated. But as his successor, came the ambi- 
tious and demonstrative little troops of gay and 
festive "cow punchers." Eor now, in the ab- 
sence of the Arapahoe and buffalo, the plains 
swarmed with herds of cattle, which with little 
expense for attention, and feasting and fatten- 
ing on the free food of a generous government, 
provided an easy and certain source of wealth 
that required no extremely high degree of exer- 
tion or genius to acquire. Again, the miner 
and prospector, coming down from their moun- 
tain fastnesses and subterranean abodes, were 
conspicuous by day about the streets, and at 
night in the front rows of the "Palace," and 
other variety theatres of Blake street. 

The Ute and cow puncher attraction, though 
still presented at rare intervals and upon special 
occasions only, are upon such homeopathic scale, 
and so domesticated as to appear scarce recog- 
nizable and exceedingly tame, while the miner, 
though greater in numbers than then, are not 
great enough to have maintained their position 
amongst the myriad of new features and attrac- 
tions, which have accompanied the rapid change 
from town to city. 

Denver, though the center of a vast region 
which surrounded it, was at the time a most diffi- 
cult place in which to secure employment. Its 
extremely arid and healthful climate rendered it 
such, being most conducive to the relief, if not 
the absolute cure, of pulmonary ailments. It 
called here great numbers of Eastern parties 



y» REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

thus afflicted, many of whom were not so far 
advanced as to in any great degree destroy their 
ability to labor ; and, either through necessity or 
a desire to be occupied, or both, sought every 
vacancy of whatsoever kind, to an extent which 
filled the field to overflowing. 

Colorado, though in 1877 enjoying its sec- 
ond year of statehood, its population was yet in 
fact far short of the legitimate requirements for 
such. 

The office of the U. S. Surveyor General, 
which governed all surveys (both land and min- 
eral) of the general government in Colorado, 
was located in Denver, and each spring con- 
tracts were let and parties sent into the moun- 
tains and out upon the plains in the establish- 
ment of standard lines, and the subdivision of 
the public lands. It was a wild, free, unfet- 
tered life in camp in the bracing atmosphere of 
this elevated arid region, with its days of activ- 
ity in an unceasing sunshine, and its nights of 
slumber undisturbed save by the call of a prowl- 
ing coyote, or the snorts of the camp mules as 
they stampeded about at the end of their picket 
ropes in the endeavor to free themselves from 
the presence of some bear who sought to share the 
camp's supply of food. It was an ideal occupa- 
tion for inexperienced and adventurous youth, 
free from competition on the part of invalids, 
and one in which the writer finally found him- 
self engaged far aAvay up in the mountains that 
bordered the plains to the west of Greeley and 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 99 

Fort Collins ; and here for a lengthy period and 
from early morn until the setting of the sun, 
scaled the mountain sides along arbitrary path- 
ways pointed out by the solar transit. 

LOFC. 



CHAPTEK VI. 

The survey having finally completed its 
work, the outfit wended its way down out of 
the mountains in the early part of May, follow- 
ing the tempestuous waters of the Cache la 
Poudre, in their wild descent from the endless 
fields of now melting snows which gave them 
birth far up on the sun-lit summit of the Med- 
icine Bow Range to the west, on through the 
old French trading post and trappers' camp of 
La Porte, nestled by the river side, near where 
its waters, freed from their rocky barrier, cease 
their relentless battling, and with passion sud- 
denly subdued, glide peacefully forth with 
pleasant, joyous murmur ings, far out yonder to 
the east, where, mingling with that of its com- 
panion, the Platte, they together journey har- 
moniously eastward across the boundless plain. 
On down the Cache la Poudre the little outfit 
wended its way, through the then struggling 
hamlet of Greeley ( a settlement then unfinished 
and featureless save in its already well estab- 
lished possession of prohibition and productive- 
ness) ; thence southwards the little band trailed 
slowly up the valley of the Platte to Denver. 

The Surveyor General waited upon the side- 
walk in front of the government office the ap- 
proach of the outfit as he saw it a block or more 



REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 101 

away along Larimer street, moving slowly to- 
ward him. Beside him stood a man some forty 
years of age, in height about five feet nine 
inches, of strong build and active; possessing 
an evidently ideal constitution for combatting 
the hardships and exposures of a frontier camp 
life, with which his general appearance gave 
pretty conclusive evidence of extended experi- 
ence. His name was Isaac F. Evans, a pros- 
pector and miner for twenty years preceding ; 
he had wandered through the gold and silver 
fields of California, Nevada, Idaho and Mon- 
tana, and was amongst the first to wash the au- 
riferous sands of California Gulch, and upon 
the immediate site of the present city of Lead- 
ville in Colorado. In fact the widely known 
Big and Little Evans gulches (forks of Califor- 
nia Gulch) were in those early days named for 
him. Early in the sixties he claimed to have 
crossed with pack and saddle animals, and in 
company with others from Salt Lake in Utah, 
to Denver, and upon a stream west of the main 
range of the Kockies to have discovered rich dig- 
gings; the Ute Indians of that region, then 
wholly unaccustomed to such encroachment, 
hurried them away from their rich find, to 
which they, becoming scattered, had never yet 
attempted a return. 

It was now the ambition of the man to en- 
gage in the undertaking, but that affliction so 
common amongst prospectors possessed him, he 



102 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

was ''dead broke/' and must be staked to "grub" 
and an "outfit." 

It was the ideal proposition to excite and 
attract a young romantic "tenderfoot," and it 
did to the extent that but a few days later, and 
upon a bright morning in the early part of May, 
each with a saddle horse, and driving three pack 
horses before, Evans, accompanied by the writer, 
filed out of the town and shaped a course west- 
ward over the range and to the Pacific Slope, 
entering the foot hills at the mouth of Turkey 
Creek, fourteen miles south from Denver, and 
following up the stream and along a wagon road 
leading to South Park and over the Park Range 
to the old placer camp of California Gulch, 
where Leadville is now located. 

The Park Range was crossed from South 
Park to the Valley of the Arkansas through 
what is known as Weston's Pass, now so ob- 
structed by washouts, fallen trees and remain- 
ing snow banks as to render it almost impass- 
able at numerous points even for the pack ani- 
mals. Reaching the summit of the pass, from 
which looking down into the great drain of the 
Arkansas River, and farther to the westward 
over a maze of mountain peaks, Evans, sitting 
upon his horse, looked about him, then down 
into the valley and far away up toward its head, 
past the mouth of old California Gulch, then 
described a semicircle with his arm and said: 
"Right here within fifteen miles of where we 
are standing is a section of country which if a 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 103 

man will cast his lot with for fifteen years, and 
has half sense, he can go out of it a rich man." 

Little impression, save in a general way, did 
this remark at the time make upon the writer. 
He had been warned against the positiveness of 
old prospectors, founded upon the poetic dreams 
with which as a class they were afflicted. ISTor 
did he but faintly, in all the fancifulness and 
romance of his youthful mind, outline that 
graphic scene of wealth, prosperity and excite- 
ment so soon to be enacted within the borders 
here described, and which to such an extent at- 
tracted the attention of the entire civilized 
world. 

Descending into the valley the trail led up 
the river to the little settlement of Malta, con- 
sisting of half a dozen or more rough board 
houses, and situate at the mouth of California 
Gulch. Here H. A. W. Tabor (soon thereafter 
millionaire, mine owner and United States Sen- 
ator from Colorado) was at the time established 
with a diminutive stock of general supplies. 
Camping for a couple of days to rest the stock, 
which had now undergone a continuous march 
of over one hundred and fifty miles, the time 
was passed in most interesting study of the evi- 
dences of earlier doings. 

Amongst the few remaining denizens of the 
gulch there was some considerable comment 
upon the discovery of a "carbonate of lead" ore, 
running more or less in silver, some of it ex- 
tremely high, which had been discovered in 



104 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

place upon the adjacent hillsides, and about half 
way between the mouth of the gulch and Oro 
City, at its head. The first of these discov- 
eries was made by J. F. Bradshaw. Bradshaw's 
discovery was in the "Ore La Plata/' a claim 
whose northerly end line was near the gulch 
and which extended southerly therefrom. Ste- 
vens and Wood, who were engaged in placering 
in the gulch, also made a discovery upon the 
"Bock" claim, but a short distance below Brad- 
shaw's discovery. Each of these discoveries 
were made during the summer of 1874. And 
though much question has arisen since as to 
which is due the credit of the first discovery, 
Stevens and Wood having remained and grown 
wealthy, while Bradshaw after the manner of 
many itinerant prospectors, having parted with 
his interests for a mere trifle, left for other 
fields, until which time there certainly was no 
question raised regarding the matter, and none 
disputed Bradshaw as the original discoverer. 
However, until this time even, which was late 
in the spring of 1877, neither of these discov- 
eries amounted to much as compared with a dis- 
covery made but a few months previous, or late 
in 1876, by the Gallagher brothers, in what was 
known as the "Camp Bird." Mr. Wood, of Ste- 
vens and Wood, referred to, had in the course of 
his placer operations noted the existence of this 
"float," which due to its high specific gravity 
collected in the "riffles" of his flume and gave 
some annoyance, but this was a commonplace 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 105 

and familiar occurrence with the earlier placer 
miners here, who had long preceded him. The 
Camp Bird shaft sunk (irrational as it may 
seem) blindly in the vegetable mould of a then 
dense forest. When at a depth of less than ten 
feet (and penetrating nothing but loose earth 
and "wash"), a body of "soft" carbonates was 
encountered in such a state of incoherency that 
a pointed shovel might be sunk therein to the 
handle, and carrying so high a percentage of 
lead that not more than half a shovelful could 
be thrown to the surface. 

So profound an impression now forced itself 
upon the mind that, in resuming the journey 
westward, interest was found divided as between 
the uncertain placer gold that lay beyond, and 
the unquestionable silver and lead which was 
being left behind. 

Continuing the course up the valley of the 
Arkansas and crossing "Tennessee Park" (a 
simple widening of the valley), the ascent was 
commenced of that low and easy route known as 
Tennessee Pass, crossing the vertebrae of the 
American continent. Upon its exact summit 
rested a huge snow bank, which now melting 
divided its product about equally between the 
Atlantic Ocean on the east, and the Pacific on 
the west. Following the trickling western con- 
tribution along its sinuous course, it gradually 
augmented in volume until at last it had devel- 
oped into a formidable stream known as the 



106 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Eagle River. Down this the course continued, 
interrupted at intervals by projecting and im- 
passable rocky points, then fording the river to 
its opposite bank, only to become entangled there 
in a maze of fallen timber, for it will be under- 
stood that this territory was then as devoid of 
any evidence of the handiwork of man as in the 
earliest days of its creation. The great iron 
pathway of the Denver and Rio Grande railway 
had not yet been hewn along the walls of this in- 
tricate and almost impenetrable defile. !No 
other life in its wanderings save that of the In- 
dian and the game marked the deep, dark vege- 
table mould of the silent forest, or trampled be- 
neath its feet the lovely Columbine as it reared 
its graceful form above the rich thick grasses, 
and its companions of brighter hue which luxu- 
riantly carpeted the surface of the mountain 
park. 

The startled deer would hasten from their 
concealment in the willows at the bank of the 
stream to some imaginary place of safety on the 
hillside, where with mingled curiosity and in- 
quisitiveness they would huddle together and 
stamp their feet in protest at the intrusion. 

Continuing down the stream to a point some- 
where between the present stations of Red Cliff 
and Minturn, and being now well down on the 
western slope of the Continental Divide, Evans 
calculated that sufficient distance in a northerly 
direction had been gained, and leaving the val- 
ley of the Eagle, turned southwesterly along the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 107 

western slope of the range to cross its many 
drains, and if possible find the tributary of the 
Grand Kiver, which contained the golden sands 
sought. 

It was early summer and the melting snow 
higher up in the range created swollen streams 
difficult to ford. The ridges or divides be- 
tween these streams were not only steep and 
rough, but covered either with an almost impen- 
etrable growth of "jack pines," or a network of 
fallen timber. 

For several days combatting this condition, 
the conclusion was reached to drop further down 
the drainage, where the current of the streams 
was less swift, and the country to a greater de- 
gree free from fallen timber and rough ground. 
Later one morning, in turning the bend of the 
stream down which the course led, there sud- 
denly appeared an Indian camp not more than 
one hundred yards distant. In the belief of be- 
ing unobserved, an attempt was made to quietly 
retrace the course, then discovering the mistake, 
rode boldly into camp. But two or three In- 
dians were visible about the quiet, sleepy rendez- 
vous, yet the numerous smouldering camp fires. 
together with the herd of ponies on the hillside 
across the stream, bespoke additional numbers. 
Soon, however, they appeared from all sources 
and directions, crawling out of "tepees" and 
"lodges," out of the brush, from behind rocks, 
and seemingly rising out of the ground, until 



108 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

the place swarmed with them. Indulging in all 
sorts of humor, some joked and laughed, some 
looked grave and serious, while others frowned 
significantly. None spoke any English, but 
much comment and discussion was carried on 
in Ute. 

Finally three sullen looking committeemen 
approaching, made it quite clear that the best 
course to pursue was to return by the direct path 
we had come, and waste as litttle time as conven- 
ient in so doing. Astonished at the readiness 
with which (under the circumstances) we under- 
stood the Ute tongue, no* time was lost in strict 
obedience. 

Meanwhile the pack animals, which had 
strolled on beyond the camp, were rounded up 
and returned, when with an entire change of 
plan, we trailed back up the valley. Journey- 
ing until nightfall, we camped and sat late about 
the camp fire, mapping a new course. Evans 
finally decided that it was now safe to renew 
the southern course with a, fair degree of safety. 
Of course, the fact was realized that to be caught 
again in the attempt to steal past them would 
unquestionably prove disastrous, as these North- 
ern Utes, under the leadership of that very un- 
certain quantity, "Chief Colorow," were at this 
time not to be trifled with. Many a prospector, 
lured by the gold believed to exist upon this for- 
bidden ground, had wandered away into this 
same Ute Indian country, never to reappear. As 
a rule there were none in the country near 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 109 

enough related or sufficiently interested to more 
than remark their absence. And were they, it 
was as hopeless a task to attempt to trace them 
as had they fallen off the earth and disappeared 
in space. Fully impressed with these facts, this 
camp became the point of a new departure south- 
erly. _^_ 

For days and weeks the way was fought 
across the rough precipitous drainage, through 
brush and fallen timber, stopping on each stream 
crossed and digging holes in its bars and banks, 
the dirt was panned so far up toward its head as 
possible and so far down stream as safety war- 
ranted. Venturing down a drain one day to 
find greater freedom from the fallen timber, a 
game trail was leisurely followed along the bank 
of a little rivulet bordered with huge bunches of 
willows, Evans as usual leading the way, when 
of a sudden his horse wheeled about, and rushing 
amongst the packs a stampede followed. The 
slopes on either side of the little stream were a 
mass of fallen timber through which they could 
make no headway, and into which they would 
not venture. Their only course lay up the 
stream. In a hundred yards or so they were 
checked, when Evans riding up explained that 
just as his horse wheeled he caught sight of an 
animal of a brownish or reddish color, which 
passed into the thicket and out of view. His im- 
pression was that it was a deer, but the fright of 
the horses inclined him to the belief that it must 
have been a mountain lion. 



110 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Evans was armed with an old style forty-five 
calibre cap and ball Colt's six-shooter, a very 
accurate and formidable weapon, though an- 
tique. He also carried an equally old-style thir- 
ty-two calibre rim-fire rifle. The writer's arms 
consisted of a double-barreled shot-gam, and a 
then up-to-date Smith & Wesson forty-five cal- 
ibre six-shooter of Russian model. 

In the council which followed, it was ar- 
ranged that using both six-shooters and the rifle, 
the writer should undertake to explore the am- 
bush. And now loaded down with guns, the 
creek was crossed to a point near the animal's 
hiding, where a huge boulder rose to a height of 
some Hve or six feet above the surrounding net- 
work of fallen timber. 

Scarcely had a position been secured upon 
the summit of the boulder when a huge and mag- 
nificent specimen of the mountain lion sprang 
from the thicket to the trunk of a fallen tree less 
than one hundred feet distant, and coolly march- 
ing out to about midway its length, with broad- 
side presented, halted and deliberately eyeing 
the trembling figure perched upon the rock, 
licked his jaws, while his tail swirled and curved 
in graceful indication of apathy and defiance. 
With haste and excitement the rifle was first dis- 
charged at the majestic target, which with an 
angry cry and gnashing teeth whirled and 
sprang toward his enemy across the network of 
fallen timber, while from the distance, and a 
knowledge of the animal's capability of prodig- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. Ill 

ious leaps, it required but a brief calculation to 
determine that there was not long to wait. Drop- 
ping the rifle and grasping a six-shooter from the 
right hip, it was jerked from the holster with 
such violence as to slip from the grasp and be 
thrown far over the shoulder. At the same 
time, losing foothold, I slipped feet first down 
the face of the rock fronting the advancing lion, 
and became tightly wedged between the rock and 
the trunk of a large fallen tree, which raised 
some distance from the ground, its upper surface 
reached to a level with the arm pits. Now han- 
dicapped beyond any degree figured upon, in 
the loss of one gun, and being solidly fenced in 
from escape, it looked like a matter for serious 
controversy, with some considerable odds in fa- 
vor of the lion. Quickly snatching the remain- 
ing six-shooter, the old cap and ball Colts, an ob- 
ject of heretofore frequent ridicule, a rapid fire 
commenced at the bounding, snarling monster; 
one, two, three, four, iive shots, and his hot 
breath was plainly felt. His forepaws had 
struck the log that pressed against my breast, 
and simultaneously a seeming third paw struck 
me near the shoulder, tearing the sleeve of my 
coat to shreds at the first blow. Artillery prac- 
tice was now over and the combat resolved itself 
into a single-round boxing match to a finish, in 
which the lion wore no gloves. Mercilessly I 
was slammed and bumped against the rock at 
my back as I fought wildly to protect my head 
in parrying the vicious swipes he made with 



112 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

first one and then the other of his great 
paws. Taking heart, I fought desperately, for 
notwithstanding the intense excitement, and the 
extremely active employment, it was plain that 
he was now not a real live lion. His blows 
came less frequently and the steam pressure 
seemed to be lessening. Finally they ceased 
altogether, when, changing his tactics, and cling- 
ing to the log with both forepaws, he reached 
forward with extended jaws. Then ramming 
the old six-shooter, which had been tenaciously 
clung to through all the unpleasantness, into his 
open mouth, the one remaining shot was fired. 
Gradually he sank backward, while his receding 
claws cut deep furrows in the trunk of the fallen 
tree, until at last, letting go all hold, he lay 
prone upon the ground for an instant, then par- 
tially recovering, reared himself upon his 
haunches and turning a face filled with hatred 
full upon the foe, gasped, then snarling feebly, 
gasped again, and fell backward upon the 
ground dead. 

In length the exact measurement was eight 
feet eleven inches from point of nose to point of 
tail, as he lay stretched upon the ground. A 
very rare specimen, from the fact that they in- 
variably measure nine feet or over in the ac- 
counts that are given of them. 

But three shots out of the seven had taken 
effect. The rifle shot had struck him in the 
loin and passed close to the vertebra. This ac- 
counted, most probably, for the writer's privilege 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 113 

to recite the circumstance, as this fortunate shot 
destroyed largely his ability to employ those 
monstrous leaps referred to. Fortunately a sec- 
ond shot had struck him en route, hence his ar- 
rival in a still more weakened and crippled con- 
dition. 

The mountain lion of Colorado and else- 
where, notwithstanding this and other accounts 
of its ferocity, is by nature a most cowardly 
brute, and cannot be induced to fight unless cor- 
nered or wounded, or attack anything, either 
animal or human, in the open, where there is the 
slightest chance of getting the worst of it. 

Bruised, and bleeding from several cuts, 
with coat torn to fragments, and one shirt sleeve 
hanging in streamers, a return was made to the 
pack train, not with the proud tread of a con- 
quering hero, but the faltering, straggling, de- 
moralized gait of a deplorable wreck prospecting 
for a hospital. The horses gazed intently at the 
approach, snorted, looked at each other and 
seemed to smile, as did the writer, when at last 
the vision of the historic parrot rose before him 
ludicrous, yet with fellow feeling. 



The following morning the journey was re- 
sumed, with its attendant trials. Day after day 
was spent in wandering up and down the drain- 
age and fighting a way over the divides, through 
thickets and fallen timber. 

Evans had sometime previously related, 
amongst other experiences of his trip years be- 



114 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

fore in coming from Utah, that of having lost a 
double-barrel shot-gun in attempting to force 
their way over the range by following out at the 
head of a drain or stream, and how, getting into 
a precipitous canon filled with young quaking 
aspens, they had cut a road for the pack animals, 
until discouraged and hemmed in by impassable 
ground, they abandoned further attempt and re- 
treated, he leaving behind this shotrgun. 

It was but a few days subsequent to the af- 
fair with the mountain lion that in working our 
way on foot up a small creek, prospecting the 
bed and banks, he suddenly remarked, "Do you 
know, this looks to me much like the gulch where 
I lost the gun." But a few steps further and a 
thicket of aspens was encountered, with the 
stumps of many which had been cut with an ax, 
and not by beavers as had frequently been found. 
After cutting they had been pitched down the 
bank and their butts sticking in the soft, moist 
earth, they had continued their growth. Doz- 
ens were found in this condition with their 
tops in full leaf. Trailing along over the rocks 
and through the thicket, with Evans ahead, there 
suddenly came from him an exclamation of joy 
and surprise, when approaching, there he stood, 
a veritable Kip Van Winkle (minus the gray 
hair and beard) with the rusty barrels of the lost 
gun in his hands, while at his feet lay the weath- 
er-beaten and decomposed stock. Whatever faint 
impressions may have been previously borne, 
during hardship and apparently aimless wander- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 115 

ings, that the man was romancing to some extent 
regarding the whole affair, were now fully dis- 
pelled, and the firmest belief filled the mind that 
rich diggings would follow next. 

For days these wanderings continued, camp- 
ing in each gulch, and upon each stream to 
search not only for placers, but to prospect the 
mountain sides for lodes that carried either gold 
or silver. Late one afternoon the bank of a 
large, rapid and turbulent stream was reached, 
already swollen by the melting snows, and now 
subject to a further rise from a heavy rainstorm 
which threatened to precipitate itself at any mo- 
ment. On the side approached was a narrow 
flat, from which rose the mountain side covered 
with burned and fallen timber, from the oppo- 
site bank rose a hillside, covered with a heavy 
growth of live pine and spruce. The river be- 
ing already a difficult ford, and the threatened 
storm which now began to descend, being sure to 
create a further rise which would render fording 
impossible perhaps for a day or more, it was de- 
termined to cross at once. In the attempt, the 
heaviest laden of the pack animals lost his foot- 
ing, was hurled to death against a huge rock in 
midstream when the cinch breaking, the animal 
was swept rapidly away, while the released and 
disordered pack scattered upon the breast of the 
turbulent stream, dancing merrily away in the 
wake of the dead horse. The balance of the ani- 
mals stemming the current, climbed the opposite 
bank and shaking the water from themselves, 



116 KEMINTSCENT RAMBLINGS. 

cast lingering glances at the body of their dead 
companion, now fast disappearing in the dis- 
tance. 

The rain was now falling in torrents, it be- 
ing one of those violent precipitations peculiar 
to the western slope of the main range of the 
Rocky Mountains. Tying the stock, shelter was 
hurriedly sought, when suddenly there was 
heard a splash in the stream, for one of the pack 
animals (a mate of that drowned) had broken 
loose and was crossing to the opposite shore. 
Jumping upon one of the remaining horses, the 
writer quickly followed, and, after a long chase, 
caught the fugitive by running it into the fallen 
timber. Returning to the bank of the stream, 
the water had now risen to a point wherein any 
attempt to again cross was exceedingly danger- 
ous; and tying up the two animals, there was 
nothing to do but devote oneself to the unpleas- 
antness of the situation. Soon the storm be- 
came less violent and resolved itself into a steady 
downpour. Evans in the meantime had un- 
packed, and getting out the wagon sheet, had 
thrown it over the lower limb of a tree, under- 
neath which with the packs he found protection. 
Our apparent predicament was now further aug- 
mented from the fact that the pack of the 
drowned animal had contained all our ammuni- 
tion, and nearly the whole of our provision. We 
had eaten nothing since morning. Evans had 
what little remaining food there was with him 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 117 

on the opposite side of the river. The storm 
was still so severe and everything so drenched 
and soaked with water, that building a fire 
whereby to cook was entirely out of the question. 
There were, however, a few fragments of bacon 
and baking powder biscuits left from the morn- 
ing meal. These Evans secured and divided, 
conveying to the writer his portion by tying 
small quantities to a stone and throwing it across 
the river. Thus he obtained a scanty supper 
and retired for the night — retired to the shelter 
of a spruce tree, and hugged its trunk as closely 
as possible. 

The storm had now subsided into a gentle, 
steady rain, and seemed to have selected its pace 
for the night. All the night long it continued, 
and all the night long a hungry, drenched, and 
bedraggled prospector stood there or wandered 
about in search of another tree, which when 
found, proved to furnish even less protection 
than the one abandoned. 

Morning came at last and the storm cleared. 
After many attempts, Evans finally succeeded 
in starting a fire. A sack of beans and a sack of 
rice were the only two articles of food that re- 
mained to be cooked. He boiled some of each. 
The beans required much time at this elevation, 
and it was noon ere the repast was ready. The 
stream had not yet fallen to a point wherein 
crossing was other than hazardous, and beans 
and rice were inconvenient articles to be thrown 
across a river. Finally he solved the problem. 



118 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Emptying a sack of Durham tobacco, he filled 
the sack with beans, tied a stone thereto, and 
landed it safely within reach. Picking it up 
and emptying the sack, the stone was replaced 
and the sack returned, when by the same method 
he served a course of rice. Such were the occa- 
sional disarrangements of a prospector's house- 
keeping in this country and in those days. 



CHAPTER VII. 

The balance of the day was spent in drying 
clothes and blankets, inventorying remaining 
supplies, searching the river banks for a great 
distance below, in the hope to recover some por- 
tion of the lost pack, and in a final discussion of 
our condition and devising the best method of 
relief. One thing was certain, the loss was so 
great that any attempt at proceeding further 
upon the summer's campaign was quite out of 
the question. A new stock of supplies must be 
had, and to obtain which from the nearest pos- 
sible point involved a long, weary journey in re- 
tracing the route ; to shorten which it was agreed 
that the attempt should be made to force our 
way directly over the range. Acting upon this 
decision, we packed our remaining stock and the 
following morning started up the very stream 
upon which we were camped. A long, tiresome 
trail upon the headwaters of one of its tribu- 
taries, demonstrated it impassable for the ani- 
mals, and working south into the succeeding 
drain, we battled with it. Reaching a point far 
up toward its head and high above timber line, 
conditions appeared favorable ; the worst seemed 
overcome, and the apparent summit near. The 
only obstacle to success as it appeared was the 
possibility of being unable to make the descent 



120 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

upon the opposite side. Suddenly a point was 
reached in which to ascend further it became 
necessary to round the head of a canon, whose 
walls were a mass of almost precipitous rocks. 
To accomplish this a crossing must be made over 
the face of a great slide or talus heap of finely 
comminuted shale, the toe of which reached the 
brink of the precipice. The mass was standing 
at so great an angle that the slightest disturb- 
ance caused it to resume its downward course. 

After carefully treading a shoulder over the 
creeping mass, the pack animals were conducted 
across in safety, and returning, a start was made 
with the saddle animals, Evans in the lead; 
when near the middle of the great slide, Evans' 
horse feeling the mass beneath his feet creep or 
move quietly downward, became terror-stricken, 
and whirling suddenly about upon the steep 
slope in the attempt to retrace his steps, fell 
backward and rolling with frightful rapidity 
down the smooth incline, shot over its brink and 
disappeared from view. Evans folded his hands 
in resignation, and inquired, "Reckon it's worth 
while going after the saddle ?" 

Passing to the opposite side of the great 
talus heap, and leaving the stock in a safe posi- 
tion, then climbing downward over its edge, and 
around the rocky point, there fifty feet or more 
below, upon a bench or shelf from which the 
walls again fell precipitously, stood the animal 
with head erect and gazing unconcernedly and 
interestedly at the panorama spread before him 



BEMINTSCENT BAMBLINGS. 121 

far below. Reaching the shelf upon which he 
stood, he was found a mass of horrible cuts from 
which the blood trickled in little streams, yet not 
a leg broken, and the task was undertaken of 
constructing a trail whereby to recover him. 
The day was spent in toil, and darkness hung 
gloomily over the scene when finally the work 
was complete and the animal recovered. No 
further progress being possible, a dry camp was 
made, and clinging to the steep face of the moun- 
tain until morning, the struggle upward was re- 
sumed with the now weakened horse, when late 
in the day absolute barriers to further progress 
being met with, a weary and baffled outfit de- 
jectedly picked its way downward to timber line 
and into camp. 

Another day dawned, and another trial be- 
gan; day after day was spent in battling back 
and forth along the face of the impassable and 
forbidding range, seeking some escape. Day by 
day conditions changed for the worse as the 
scanty stock of beans and rice diminished, and 
finally disappeared altogether. The few car- 
tridges remaining had been wasted on deer, 
which invariably had escaped. For days "Killi- 
kinick" and other wild berries had furnished 
the only means of subsistence. Fish were plen- 
tiful in all the streams, but the fishing tackle had 
accompanied the drowned pack animal. 

And now an old grouse hen appeared with 
her brood of young, who quickly concealed them- 



122 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

selves beneath the leaves and in the brash, while 
the mother in a heroic yet fatal attempt at their 
defense bristled and faced in battle array. Cruel 
and cowardly as the act may seem, she was slain. 
Hunger had pressed its wants so severely that 
sentiment and feeling were compelled to yield. 
It became a question of the survival of the fittest, 
and the difference of opinion as to this, existing 
between the old hen and her antagonists, was, as 
in most cases heretofore, settled in their favor 
simply through the superior physical force which 
they possessed. Had it been a good healthy 
bear, the decision would probably have gone to 
the bear. 

From the summit of a divide, and several 
miles distant and far below there appeared the 
following day the head of an open valley where 
several drains seemed to unite. With little re- 
gard for Indians, through a now half-starved 
condition, a course was shaped toward it, with 
the hope to find some trace of an Indian trail 
which would lead over the range. 

Entering the border of the valley at dark, it 
seemed a great amphitheatre from which numer- 
ous important drains led into the mountains. It 
was no other than the site later occupied by the 
great mining camp of Aspen. 

The morning following this arrival, each 
started out in exploration of the borders of the 
open country for some evidence of an outlet. 
Familiar with the customs of the Indians in scat- 
tering their footprints in the open country, such 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 123 

as parks and valleys, and congregating again 
upon more impassable and unfrequented ground 
(especially when entering a mountain pass), the 
day was spent in circling about well up in the 
timber on the mountain sides, with no result. 
And now enroute toward a supperless camp, a 
cotton-tail rabbit sprang from beneath the horse's 
feet and sought safety in a nearby rock pile; 
digging it out, another feast was engaged in. 
Early in the forenoon of the following day's 
search, there suddenly presented itself a large, 
well-defined Indian trail. One could never for- 
get the impression its sudden appearance made 
after all these weary weeks of toiling over rocks 
and fallen timber, through impenetrable thick- 
ets, and much of the time crazed with hunger. 
Broadway, New York, with its array of tower- 
ing edifices, its throng of vehicles and beings, had 
never appeared as quite so easy and modern a 
thoroughfare as this, or had the choice viands 
which filled the windows of its cafes ever ap- 
pealed to the sense of taste as half so delicious 
and appetizing as did the cotton tail and grouse. 

Gathering up the outfit, and following the 
newly discovered trail, rapid ascent was made 
along the mountain side, and upward through 
the dense timber toward the summit of the range. 
The relaxation from the incessant and severe 
physical and mental strain which had so long 
preceded, filled both man and beast with a hope 
and buoyancy of spirit, restful and inspiring to 



124 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

a degree, in which one seemed to fairly float up- 
ward and onward, out of, and beyond the wilder- 
ness of the past with its maze of intricacies and 
entanglements. Gradually, through the agree- 
able monotony arising from an easy and unin- 
terrupted passage, the first enthusiasm died 
away into the dreamy repose of sudden relief, 
when of a sudden the even tenor of the way was 
disturbed by Evans suddenly wheeling his horse 
crosswise of the trail, while, as with one hand he 
quickly drew his six-shooter, with the other he 
frantically motioned the writer forward. 

Rushing past the pack animals, and shoving 
them from the trail and down the mountain side, 
his side was scarcely reached, when, some dis- 
tance up the mountain and along the line of the 
trail, there was to be seen through the timber 
numerous forms clad in bright colored blankets 
as they dodged hither and thither in their de- 
scent. Quickly they came into full view, when 
with guns drawn, Evans motioned them to halt. 

Eor a brief time each side remained awk- 
wardly awaiting some advance on the part of the 
other, when finally a venerable looking old In- 
dian, dressed in a battered plug hat and an old 
vest, with a blanket gathered about his waist, 
and a new Winchester rifle slung to the horn of 
his saddle, rode out a short distance in advance 
of the band, and halting beckoned us toward 
him. Meeting about midway of the trail, he 
dropped his bridle reins upon the horn of the 
saddle, and sitting majestically astride his horse, 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 125 

there in the shadows of the deep forest, delved 
deeply into an inner pocket of the tattered vest he 
wore, and fished therefrom a well-worn envelope 
containing a letter, which he handed to Evans, 
who read it carefully and looking serious and 
dissatisfied at the old Indian, passed it to the 
writer. It appeared to be a permit from the 
Indian agent at Colorado Springs for this band 
of Indians to leave the reservation on a trading 
expedition, to visit Pueblo, Colorado Springs 
and Denver, good until a given date, which was 
now several weeks past. Evans was now gestic- 
ulating, frowning and muttering his displeasure 
at a rapid rate and in a most positive and force- 
ful manner, with the old Indian watching cau- 
tiously for an opening, into which he vainly at- 
tempted to interpolate some explanation and ex- 
cuse. Evans had embraced the opportunity, 
and assuming the role of an agent of the Indian 
Department, was concealing quite successfully 
his true position of an insignificant, trespassing 
prospector, and was now extremely busy imper- 
sonating one in authority under the great gov- 
ernment, who had caught them red-handed in the 
commitment of an offense which they readily un- 
derstood, and which he employed every method 
of explanation to magnify into the most mon- 
strous proportions, while steadfastly withhold- 
ing from the importuning old chief the forgive- 
ness which he sought. Meantime, the pack ani- 
mals left behind, being no longer urged forward, 
fed slowly along the trail, until finally they 



126 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

joined the trio of horsemen in council, who 
were too fully engaged to note their appearance 
until a pow wow raised by the balance of the 
band, as they pressed forward and about laugh- 
ing, pointing and making evidently facetious re- 
marks, attracted attention to the fact that the ap- 
proach of the packs with shovels, picks and gold 
pans lashed thereto in plain sight was the cause. 
The mask had fallen, and through the mute evi- 
dence which had wandered into the council 
chamber there was no further support of the 
false position heretofore assumed. 

The cloud of perplexity which had overhung 
the face of the old Indian now gave way to a 
complacent smile, that deepened rapidly into an 
exultant grin ; while the whole band, numbering 
some 25 or 30, surrounded the pack animals, and 
while a portion of the band stripped the packs 
in the search for sugar, coffee and tobacco, the 
balance danced about derisively and drummed 
an accompaniment on the gold pans. Finding 
little of which they were in search, they cut the 
superfluous straps from the pack saddle cinches, 
and mounting their horses, rode on down the 
trail and disappeared in the forest below. 

Hunger had now produced a condition bor- 
dering insanity, and the agreement was fully 
reached to kill one of the horses that night for 
food. 

It was near nightfall when reaching the sum- 
mit of the range there could he seen below and 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 127 

stretching far away to the south, a great open 
country, comparatively level, and bordered upon 
the east by another lofty range of mountain. 
Camp was established for the night here upon 
the summit, and in view of possibilities which 
might exist, the slaughter of the horse was post- 
poned until noon of the following day, for in 
this great open country below it was felt there 
might be found some trace of a white man. 

Daylight found the little outfit again un- 
der way, and soon the head of a stream was 
reached, down which it wended its way to the 
level country below. It was near noon, and sick 
and tired, camp was about to be made, when 
passing around a projecting point, there to the 
right, at the head of a little stretch of bottom 
land, stood grazing a horse and mule. 

Evans at once exclaimed, "See that mule! 
Injuns don't use mules, hardly ever. There's 
white men here somewhere." Scanning the sur- 
roundings eagerly, there was discovered for an 
instant what appeared to be a light thin column 
of smoke ascending from behind a second pro- 
jecting point a short distance ahead. Anxiously 
its recurrence was awaited. Soon it appeared 
again, there was no mistaking it this time, and 
striking the horses a sudden blow, they bounded 
forward. Rounding the point, what a joyous 
sight presented itself. There beneath the shade 
of a wide spreading pinion tree reclined two 
white men, who sprang to their feet and grabbed 
their guns as they were dashed suddenly upon 



128 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

from behind the point. Before them smoul- 
dered a camp fire, and beside it lay a fry pan in 
which rested the fragment of a a flap jack/' or 
pancake. 

Bringing the horses to a sndden halt, un- 
mindful of the two men about the camp fire, and 
without indulging in the slightest ceremony, 
each sprang from the saddle and snatching the 
food from the pan devoured it ravenously. It 
was unleavened, simply flour and water mixed, 
for as the conversation which immediately fol- 
lowed explained, they too were practically out of 
provisions save flour. 

They proved to be two prospectors from 
Fairplay in South Park, and were about to start 
on the following day for Malta in the Arkansas 
Valley, at the mouth of California Gulch — the 
nearest point at which supplies could be ob- 
tained, and some fifty or sixty miles distant, 
with a mountain range intervening. During 
the evening it was arranged that we should 
jointly prospect the section in which we were, 
together with that about Crested Butte and 
Washington Gulch, twenty-five miles farther to 
the west; and that the writer should, upon the 
following morning start upon the trip for a joint 
stock of supplies, taking a saddle horse and two 
pack animals. Malta was the point to which 
additional funds were to be forwarded, so where- 
in the strangers had money, it was regarded as 
useless to pack it on the trip, but to arrange the 
matter of their share upon the return. 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 129 

Early in the morning and from the camp 
there was pointed out across the park, and far 
away to the southeast, a pass in the range where 
crossing conld be made to the valley of the Ar- 
kansas. It was called the "Red Mountain Pass," 
and terminated on the valley side at the "Twin 
Lakes." 

Directions were further given to follow down 
the Taylor River (for the great open country 
which we had entered proved to be Taylor 
Park), a distance of twelve or fifteen miles, 
where would be found an Indian trail crossing, 
then taking this trail easterly it would lead into 
and over the pass. Finding the trail, camp was 
made for noon at timber line on the Western 
Slope. Picketing the stock, and crawling into 
a bunch of small quaking aspens by the side of 
the trail, lunch was commenced upon a supply 
of the unleavened flap jacks. It was scarce 
begun, however, when there was heard the patter 
of a horse's hoofs upon the trail above, and peer- 
ing out, an Indian rode up and grunted "How." 
Then spying one of the flap jacks lying upon 
the ground, dismounted and began to devour it 
with as little ceremony as the writer had done 
the day previous. Together the food was quickly 
devoured, each possessed of a silent unexpressed 
determination to get his share. The meal ended, 
the Indian sat silently for a few minutes, then 
said, "White man damn thief !" Full agree- 
ment being promptly extended, he continued, 
"Injun damn thief, too." Again his views were 



130 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

adopted, but not so heartily, hoping to curry- 
favor through an apparent excess of confidence 
in favor of the Indian. Then he explained that 
Indians had stolen horses from the whites, and 
that they in retaliation had, amongst others, sto- 
len his horses. Then he relapsed again into 
sullen silence, while the writer employed the in- 
terval in championing the cause of the Indian, 
and in general condemnation of the white race. 
Finally he remarked, "Me heap big Injun." 
Haste was made in conveying to him full assur- 
ance of having already beecome convinced be- 
yond doubt of the fact from his general appear- 
ance and otherwise. After which he remarked, 
"Me Washington." I bowed, extended my hand 
and greeted him cordially, yet deferentially; 
still, with all the sweet, persuasive and carefully 
studied blandishments of speech bestowed upon 
him, success was in no degree apparent in the 
creation of a single rift in the dark, dense 
mantle of sullen gloom that hung about his face 
and persistently shadowed the whole proceeding. 
It had been presumed from the first that he 
was attended by other Indians who were ex- 
pected to ride up at any moment, and redress 
their wrongs through an appropriation of the 
writer's animals at least. We were alone to- 
gether upon a lonely trail; in case of trouble, 
wherein the Indians would unquestionably get 
the best of it, days would pass before the writer 
would be even thought of as not returning, and 
little evidence need ever be gained concerning 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 131 

his disappearance. Other Indians not appear- 
ing, and having tarried a sufficient time to avoid 
any indication of undue haste, excuses were pre- 
sented for a departure. Each of us was heav- 
ily armed, and each bestowed upon the other the 
utmost watchfulness. The horses were but a 
few rods distant, and a peculiar manuvering 
was required in reaching them, and meanwhile 
face the Indian, who remained seated upon the 
ground. 

And now having secured them, the riding 
away became a serious problem, for of necessity 
the back must be turned toward him. Every 
thing in readiness, the two pack animals were 
edged over to the trail, each kicked and cuffed 
plentifully, and as they bounded away, hit with 
a stone. Then leaping upon the saddle animal 
with face toward his tail, he quickly followed 
them. Instantly a broad grin overspread the 
Indian's face, and lighted up the departure, as 
cover was hurriedly sought in a bunch of quak- 
ing aspens far up the trail. 

Over the summit and down the eastern slope 
of the Saguache Range we tore at a breakneck 
pace, along the shores of the Twin Lakes and up 
the Arkansas River, where a late camp was made 
upon the banks, well out of reach of other prowl- 
ing Utes. 

The sun had climbed to the summit of the 
Park Range to the east, and was pouring its 
bright light upon the clear dashing waters of the 



132 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

Arkansas, as they swirled onward past the camp, 
gurgling and rippling and murmuring the same 
tones that had induced a slumber from which 
until now there had been no awakening. A 
hasty breakfast of the unleavened flap jacks, and 
then came further delay in the impatient dash 
farther up the river to California Gulch, where 
a long deferred repast was possible to be had. 
The trousers worn, had after weeks of toiling 
through fallen timber and underbrush, lost their 
lower extremities until they furnished little con- 
cealment to points far above the knee, and for 
the first time the pangs of hunger so gave way to 
the pride of personal appearance, that sitting 
there upon the river bank, several hours of the 
bright Sabbath morning were spent framing in 
a new pair of legs from a saddle blanket of such 
bright colors, that when finished a Ute chief 
would have leaped with joy at being their pos- 
sessor. 

Entering Malta, the stillness of a well-ob- 
served Sabbath pervaded the little straggling 
camp, and stretched far away up the gulch, min- 
gling with that of the ever-silent range above. 
!No sign of life was visible save two native dogs 
gnawing away at the carcass of a dead animal 
behind an old deserted log stable in the outskirts 
of the camp, and who, thinking they "smelled 
Injuns," quickly left their meal, and tearing 
along beside the saddle animal, barked and 
snarled and made frantic leaps at the bright col- 
ored trousers. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 133 

The postoffice of Malta, in a little rough 
board store of Byfield and Hippler, was ar- 
ranged on the end of the counter near the only 
window. It was a rough board affair, and the 
glass that covered the few receptacles for letters 
was so completely coated with dirt and dust, ac- 
cumulated and carefully preserved through the 
whole life of the sleepy camp, that the move- 
ments of the operator in distributing mail were 
thoroughly concealed, while no care was required 
on his part in depositing the letters in their re- 
ceptacles with the address and postmark down- 
ward. 

Byfield secured the general delivery bunch, 
and throwing them on the store counter for ex- 
amination, hastened to the room in the rear to 
evict an itinerant burro, who, encouraged 
through the stillness arising from lack of trade 
within, had boldly entered through a rear door 
and attacked the pile of bacon in the farthermost 
corner of the room. Meanwhile the greasy, 
worn letters were eagerly yet carefully sorted, 
many of which bore date of the camp's earliest 
settlement, and nearly all of which were marked 
"Important," or "In Haste," but none bore the 
name sought. This of itself, to say nothing of 
the trousers worn, together with other little im- 
perfections in personal appearance seemed 
somewhat against one, and for the moment there 
came a longing to be back again across the range 
in Taylor Park, and close beside that sole remain- 
ing sack of flour. But it was a long way, and 



134 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

present hunger, together with the impossibility 
of returning without a limited supply of food 
forbade all hope, while perhaps it was as easy to 
obtain the full amount sought as this. And so 
after carefully preparing and rehearsing a tale 
that would stand any amount of cross-examina- 
tion on the part of a mining camp store keeper, 
it was poured forth with such result that the fol- 
lowing morning there rode back down the river 
a well-fed and joyous prospector, clad in a can- 
vas suit whose profusion of copper rivets flash- 
ing in the bright sunlight failed to arouse the 
dogs as the trousers had done, and driving be- 
fore him the two pack animals, who trudged la- 
boriously forward under their loads of flour, 
ham, bacon, sugar, coffee, and other delicacies so 
long a stranger to his camp. Various devices 
were resorted to whereby to insure the fact that it 
was not all a dream ; then marveled long at the 
breadth and boldness of the credit system in Cal- 
ifornia Gulch. 

Meeting with but indifferent success in the 
Taylor Park and Washington Gulch expedition, 
a return was made to California Gulch, where 
the carbonate of lead ores rich with silver were 
creating a growing attention and here trailing 
along the wagon road, on either side of which 
was scattered a store or two and a few saloons, 
and along where Chestnut street in Leadville 
now lies, was found encamped with his little out- 
fit gathered about him a prospector of more than 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 



135 



ordinary note. His name was Joseph Watson, 
and familiarly referred to by the younger of his 
acquaintances as "Uncle Joe." Never with 




Joe Watson 



more than ordinary advantages, the later and 
greater portion of his life had been spent prowl- 
ing about in the silent fastnesses of the moun- 



136 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

tain ranges in search of the precious metals, or 
in the crude mining camp, surrounded by the 
motley horde that followed. Yet the manner 
and speech of this man did honor to the influence 
and teachings of the leading colleges of the land. 
He had so far in his career made two fortunes 
in mining, each more than a quarter of a million 
dollars, every dollar of which was now lost, 
largely through other ventures. 

The mountain sides of California Gulch, as 
well as those neighboring (together with the very 
ground upon which Leadville now stands) and 
well down toward the beds of the drains, were at 
this time covered with a primeval forest of pine 
and spruce; its sudden devastation being but 
one of the footprints of avaricious man as he 
pursues the pathway of so called civilization and 
progress. 

Evans and Watson proved old acquaintances, 
and together it was arranged to establish a joint 
camp well up toward the head of Iowa Gulch, 
which paralleled California Gulch on the south, 
and engage in a systematic search for the coveted 
carbonate of lead ores so rich in silver. 

Here on the bank of a rippling stream that 
flowed down the gulch, and within the shelter of 
the heavy timber that grew to the water's edge, 
camp was established. 

High upon the mountain side to the south, 
an inspiration for untiring effort, was the fam- 
ous "Long and Derry" mine, already pouring 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 137 

out great quantities of ore, the richest jet pro- 
duced. 

Breakfast being over, one bright morning in 
the early autumn, it was discovered that the 
camp's supply of provisions were low, and 
while Evans and "Uncle Joe" went into the hills 
upon their regular search for wealth, the writer, 
with saddle and pack animal, started for Malta 
to secure a fresh supply. 

Returning some time before the noon hour, 
there was found sitting beneath the shelter of a 
large spruce a stranger, who arose and ap- 
proached. He was rather a large man with a 
heavy drooping moustache, and hair which hung 
well down upon the collar of his coat. He was 
erect in stature, and courteous and unaffected in 
manner, somewhat past the prime of life, though 
apparently well preserved. While not bearing 
the marks of recent and every-day experience at 
toil and exposure, yet there was about him the ev- 
idence of ease and a certain familiarity with 
camp life. His appearance betokened no sur- 
prise, as it was a common occurrence at this time 
for a stranger to wander over the range from 
Fairplay or Alma on the opposite side, and pass- 
ing a prospector's camp at meal time, or when 
hungry, to enter, and in case of the absence of 
the occupants, to await their return or help him- 
self to such food as he required. Casting the 
lash rope loose from the pack, which consisted of 
two heavy "panniers," the stranger was called to 



138 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



assist in removing the load from the animal's 
back. 

Turning the animals loose, the cargo was 
gathered up and placed in its proper position in 
the camp, preparatory to the arrangements for a 
meal. When turning to the stranger the writer 
remarked, "!N*ow, partner, if you will rustle a 
little wood we will have something to eat." 
Seemingly delighted at the opportunity to serve, 
he entered the forest in search of dead limbs; 
returning shortly he deposited his load near the 
blazing camp fire and inquired if there was any 
further service he could perform. The sugges- 
tion was made that while he was thus engaged, 
it would possibly be well to bring another load. 
Without comment he departed, and returning 



'ft s 



v'**-" 













He soon returned with a backload which he deposited near the camp fire. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 139 

with the second load, applied for further em- 
ployment. Casting about for some further ra- 
tional occupation whereby to humor the man's 
apparently inordinate ambition for work, two 
empty kettles sitting near suggested further oc- 
cupation. Giving them a little indicative kick, 
permission was extended for him to bring them 
filled with water from the creek. The final task 
ended, dinner was nearly ready; still the man 
craved work ; hence, it was now quite plain that 
he was a stranger in these parts, and from a long 
way off. Finally he was induced to sit down 
and make himself at home until the midday meal 
was complete. 

Fully entertained with the delights, and oc- 
cupied with the manifold duties of preparing a 
meal over a camp fire, little attention was paid 
the guest until duties were ended and the food 
ready to serve. 

Between the trunks of two large spruce trees, 
standing about six feet apart, had been fitted a 
board which served as a table. On either side 
of this, and resting upon stakes driven in the 
ground, was still another board which answered 
the purposes of a seat. 

The stranger seated himself at one side of the 
table, while the writer took the opposite side, 
when, the important and irritating duties of a 
cook being ended, he cast aside all reserve, and 
descending to a plane with ordinary mortals, at 
once engaged in desultory conversation. 



140 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

It may be stated here that amongst other 
weaknesses the writer possessed, was one re- 
cently acquired of imparting to apparently unin- 
formed denizens of the hills a line of informa- 
tion, absolutely unrestricted and ofttimes of 
doubtful authority. This habit had largely been 
formed through an insane desire to escape as 
quickly as possible the tantalizing distinction of 
being a "tenderfoot." 

Cautious inquiry was first made into the 
stranger's occupation, and the attempt made to 
call forth any superior knowledge he might 
possess along any particular line, but so far 
as could be determined, he was not a spe- 
cialist in anything. Fortified with this belief, 
a volume of information directly concerning 
mines and mining was poured forth with 
little departures here and there, until finally 
it involved the affairs of the country gener- 
ally. He proved a most excellent listener, 
while his unconcealed interest and appreciation 
was of so flattering and encouraging a nature 
that it was felt proper contribution could not be 
made to so ardent and grateful a searcher after 
knowledge. Finally, as feared, the supply of 
information concerning matters which had oc- 
curred during the writer's lifetime became ex- 
hausted, and he was forced to resort to more an- 
cient things, and to that end first took up for dis- 
cussion the matter of the war between the North 
and the South. Gallantly sailing along with the 
new subject, manufacturing history and scatter- 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 141 

ing it by the wayside, until at last, pausing for 
an instant to sever a piece of bacon rind with his 
teeth, he was startled at the man's modestly ven- 
turing a correction to a portion of the mass of de- 
tail delivered. The writer was now not only 
startled at the radical departure, but simultane- 
ously there crept over him just the faintest sus- 
picion of being ambushed. 

Stopping short, a reconnoitre was com- 
menced, first inquiring if the stranger was in the 
army during the war. He replied that he was. 
"What state were you from?" "Illinois." 
"Were you a private or an officer?" "An offi- 
cer." "How did you rank ?" "Well, I ranked 
as a general at the close of the war." 

It was now evident there was trouble ahead, 
and pausing for a moment to look the field over 
for some avenue of escape, meekly asked, "What 
may I call your name ?" "My name is Logan." 

Instantly the evidence in the case condensed 
itself in most convincing form. He was from 
Illinois, was a general at the close of the war. 
I glanced across the table at the dark, swarthy 
features of the man, the long hair, the drooping 
moustache and the high cheek bones. Unlooked- 
for as his presence was, there could be no mis- 
take. It was the man whose portrait had been 
so familiar since early boyhood. And now with 
a sickly smile of apology and resignation, the 
final question was falteringly asked, "John A. 
Logan ?" Gazing intently at me, he pushed his 
tin plate to one side, fished a toothpick from his 



142 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

vest pocket, and resting his elbow on the table 
replied, "Yes, sir." 

The dinner dishes were washed and wiped in 
silence on the part of the writer, and for an hour 
or more we lounged about the camp fire and 
'neath the tall spruces, smoking, while he (in the 
humane effort to be charitable) talked freely on 
various subjects, carefully avoiding, however, 
that of the war of the Eebellion. And thus the 
fact was developed that the General had been 
sitting at his own table and eating his own food, 
for it was he who was grubstaking "Uncle Joe." 



OHAPTEE VIII. 

Patiently and confidently, day after day, the 
mountain sides were searched for some evidence 
of the wealth so eagerly sought, sinking here and 
there a hole upon some indication of a treasure 
which lay beneath. Prospecting over the en- 
tire district was upon the whole blind work. The 
ore occurring not as fissure veins more or less 
vertical, whose apexes of less destructible mate- 
rial would at intervals present themselves, but 
contact deposits of considerable depth, and oc- 
curring more or less horizontally, they had little 
tendency to present themselves to the eye of the 
prospector who roamed upon the surface. 

Roughly, the geology of the district may be 
described, as successive sheets of sedimentary 
and igneous rocks, resting conformably upon the 
underlying granite. Both the sedimentaries 
and the igneous were of varying character. Com- 
monly there was found resting upon the granite 
a sheet of quartzite. Above this, a white lime, 
then sporadically occurred a parting quartzite 
largely overlaid by an intrusive porphyry. Fol- 
lowing this came two almost universal sheets, the 
first a blue lime, the second a white porhpyry, 
the whole blanketed by wash and ofttimes in ad- 
dition thereto by grits and lake beds, the com- 
bined formations having been uplifted, folded, 
10 



144 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

faulted and cut through by porphyry dikes to a 
marked degree. The entire formations overly- 
ing the granites in many localities presented a 
thickness of from two to three thousand feet, 
while at other points the granite approached 
closely to the surface. 

The great deposits of these silver-lead ores 
were found occurring most generally at the con- 
tact between the white porphyry and the blue 
lime, in some instances wholly in the lime, but 
near the contact. On Fryer Hill it was largely 
in a sheet of blue lime, which was both under- 
laid and overlaid by white porphyry. 

The points easiest of attack were where the 
anticlines of the great folds reached nearest the 
surface, and that portion of the summit or crown 
involving the upper or covering sheets had been 
scoured away to a point exposing the ore, as in 
the case of the Little Chief, Little Pittsburg, 
and other great discoveries. Yet these were in- 
variably covered with some considerable depths 
of detritus. The greatest depths of these ore de- 
posits, however, scarce ever exceeded 250 feet. 
It may be readily seen how earlier prospectors 
searching upon the surface, and with no suspi- 
cion of the fact, tread repeatedly and ofttimes 
camped upon areas beneath which but a slight 
depth, and covered only by material easily re- 
moved by the simple use of pick and shovel, 
rested bodies of ore worth millions of dollars 
through the gold and silver they contained, while 
the unsuspecting, and impecunious prospector 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 145 

camped above, cursed his luck, and the worthless- 
ness of the ground. 

During the summer of '77, the only discov- 
eries which were producing, or which in fact 
made any showing of great promise, were the 
Long and Derry, the Camp Bird, the Iron Sil- 
ver, and the Oro La Plata, the original discovery 
made by Bradshaw. The Long and Derry be- 
ing by far the most productive, shipping one 
single wagon load of ore that netted the owners 
five thousand dollars, and that after the most 
outrageous charges by the purchasers for reduc- 
tion, a custom most common in those early days. 
Yet notwithstanding this avalanche of wealth, 
the writer, some twenty years later, met Jake 
Long, the discoverer and one of the owners, trudg- 
ing along a dusty trail in the southern portion 
of the San Luis Valley, bare-footed, and driving 
before him a burro on whose back was borne the 
man's entire earthly possessions, while the burro 
remained far from being overloaded. He was 
now headed for the San Juan in search of an- 
other fortune. 

As will be noted from the description of the 
geology and ore occurrence of the camp, actual 
discoveries were difficult to make, and these only 
through blind work, into which the element 
of chance largely entered. 

However, before the occurrence of snow, 
which falls in mid-autumn at this elevation of 
over two miles above sea level, Evans had se- 



146 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

lected and located several pieces of ground. 
Uncle Joe was more difficult to suit in the 
way of a location. He was a man far above the 
ordinary prospector in point of information and 
scientific attainment. He had certain ideas re- 
garding the fitness of things geologically. 
Through such reasoning he had figured out 
where ore should occur and where it should not, 
and insisted upon finding it only there. Upon 
the whole he was a most interesting man, intelli- 
gent, good natured, and filled with kind consid- 
eration, the writer soon found himself looking to 
the man for advice and encouragement rather 
than to his partner, who a single man, long re- 
tired from the associations of home life, and con- 
fined to the environment of camp and hoarding 
house, had grown to a degree impatient with the 
annoyances of a so-called tenderfoot, while Uncle 
Joe had boys of his own. 

The man was at the time one of the most, if 
not the most, experienced mining men in the 
state, while his success hereinbefore referred to 
had been met with by few ; yet now he was, to 
use the term, "dead broke." 

The season for prospecting had nearly 
passed, the stern relentless winter of those high 
elevations was approaching, and he had made no 
discovery or location which he could conscien- 
tiously recommend for development during the 
winter. Down in the bottom of the ten-foot 
hole we were sinking jointly, the writer listened 
to his recital of the past and the fortune it had 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 147 

brought him, his present condition, and gloomy 
picturing of the future, and his fixed conclusion 
in the final remark, "No, my boy, success of 
that sort hardly ever comes to a man the third 
time, and it ain't reasonable to expect it." 

Soon the storm clouds hovered, and the snow 
fell deep and shut off further prospecting, and 
Uncle Joe gathered up his tools, drifted de- 
jectedly up to a claim called the Morning Star, 
where for a "grub stake" and a one-fourth inter- 
est he stood all day in the swirling snow and the 
bleak winds, and windlassed and dumped the 
bucket. Day by day, and week by week he 
wound it to the surface filled with nothing but 
barren rock, until near the close of a day's work 
after months of toil and exposure and growing 
discouragement, his strength seemed to fail him 
as he started a bucket load from the bottom of 
the shaft, and while he heard the murmur of ex- 
cited voices far below, he interpreted it as fear 
that through his failing strength he would drop 
the mass of broken rock upon them ; concentrat- 
ing his energies, the heavy load toiled slowly 
upward at each revolution of the crank, until 
finally appearing at the collar of the shaft his 
eyes rested upon a scarce half filled bucket, for 
the material therein was one-half lead and con- 
tained hundreds of ounces of silver per ton. 

A few months later his interest in this prop- 
erty had netted him more than three hundred 
thousand dollars. 



148 BEMISTISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

The winter of '11 and '78 in California 
Gulch was one of deep snows and extreme cold, 
and comfortable winter quarters were not easy 
to obtain. When Uncle Joe left and went to 
work on the Morning Star, a return to the sole 
companionship of a "tenderfoot" was too retro- 
grading a nature for Evans, and he sought other 
society and a new home. 

John Thompson, an old-timer in the gulch 
in placer days, now spent his summers on a small 
ranch clown the river, and his winters working 
his claims up there in the gulch, where he owned 
an uncommonly good log house. 

Another old-timer and character known as 
"Old Uncle Dave Fulton," left his own little log 
cabin in Oro, up at the head of the gulch each 
winter and came clown and lived with Thompson 
and worked for him and others. And thus it 
happened that through the innate hospitality that 
has ever been a feature of the denizens of early 
mining camps, the writer, together with another 
young man named Walter G. Middleton, found 
comfortable shelter for the winter. 

Middleton was a young man, well bred and 
accomplished. Amongst other little accomplish- 
ments, he played the guitar, and this aroused a 
spirit of rivalry in the landlord, John Thomp- 
son. Thompson himself was a character of no 
ordinary variety, though differing entirely in his 
make-up from Dave Fulton. Lean, lank, and 
ungainly in form, with straggling, unkempt 
locks, a bunch of faded and somewhat artificial 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 149 

looking whiskers (with the under lip so shaven 
as to create the impression of their being fes- 
tooned from the corners of his month), covered 
the point of his chin and hanging mechanically 




John Thompson 

downward seemed at any time about to lose their 
scanty hold entirely. His speech was a combi- 
nation of Missouri and down-east dialect, while 
his habits and manners were equally droll, rural 
and kindly. An old violin, never of superior 
tone, but now, after years of service down on the 



150 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

river and up here in the gulch, a most dilapi- 
dated and discordant affair, was Thompson's sole 
instrument of amusement, and in which was 
centered the sum total of his ambition along the 
line of accomplishments, and now when Middle- 
ton and the guitar found their way into the gulch 
and under the same roof, Thompson and the old 
violin had met with competitive encroachment 
never yet experienced, and realizing it, he played 
more frequently than ever before the only pieces 
he had ever known, a The Devil's Dream" and 
the "White Cockade." 

Dave Fulton was an even more original and 
striking character than John Thompson; a man 
approaching three score years and ten, though 
well preserved, of herculean proportions, silent 
upon the whole, and gentle and soft-spoken in 
the limited speech he employed. The heavy 
gray beard and moustache he wore but imper- 
fectly concealed the strong lines of character 
with which his face was drawn, while from be- 
neath dense bushy brows there twinkled a pair 
of merry mirthful eyes, while a profusion of 
gray hair rested its curling locks upon the collar 
of his coat. He was the hermit of California 
Gulch. 

The Pike's Peak excitement had lured him 
from his little farm and family in Ohio, in the 
hope to make a stake whereby to erect a modern 
house in place of the primitive and weather- 
beaten old structure that had afforded them shel- 
ter so long, and own a little more pretentious 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



151 




^1 



m 



Uncle Dive Fulton 



vehicle than the old farm wagon, wherein his 
wife and children might each Sabbath journey 
over to the village church, while he with a con- 
science now at ease, might remain at home and 
read and re-read the teachings of Tom Paine, of 
whom Uncle Dave was an ardent admirer. And 
finally to send his children (when the time 
came) so far away to school that the payment of 



152 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

board and room would be a necessity, and re- 
quire the expenditure of more money than the 
little farm declared in dividends each year. In 
pursuit of all which his pathway finally led him 
into California Gulch during the days of its 
placers. And here he toiled and washed the au- 
riferous sands and his own clothes and cooked 
his own food, through long weary months and 
even years, and recovered only just about enough 
to keep the clothes and food replaced, while ex- 
asperation and dogged determination in place of 
discouragement took possession of him as each 
month he saw others of his fellow workers make 
"cleanups" that alone would have gratified his 
ambition, and sent him rejoicing back over the 
long, weary pathway of the trackless plains to 
the home, and those for whom his efforts had 
been in behalf. 

And now each day through the influence of 
his own misfortunes, and the princely achieve- 
ments of those about him, his determination sim- 
ply strengthened, and he swore a solemn oath 
that he would never leave the gulch and its im- 
mediate vicinity until he had accomplished the 
purpose for which he came. And here we find 
him, after the snows of eighteen winters had in 
turn filled the gulch, and the icy blasts from the 
white sheeted and lofty range above had swept 
down as regularly, and locked in their icy em- 
brace the waters of the little stream with which 
he washed his dirt, and piled the snow deep in 
the pit wherein he dug and high about the little 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 153 

log cabin nearby wherein he doggedly awaited 
the coming of another springtime ; while during 
all these eighteen years he had faithfully kept 
his vow and confined himself to the gulch and 
its surroundings, and when the day of weary, 
fruitless toil was ended, there in the little log 
shelter by the dim light of a candle, he with 
rigid regularity inscribed a message filled with 
hope and devotion to the loved ones who in all 
these years he had never seen. 

And now when the placers were nearly ex- 
tinct, came a new source of wealth in the gulch, 
the discovery of the carbonate ores, and forsak- 
ing the placers, Uncle Dave (joining the little 
group in John Thompson's cabin) cast a cheer 
upon the household, and his fortunes with those 
about him in digging for the new-found form of 
wealth. 

Notwithstanding his years of solitude, lone- 
liness and ill luck, Uncle Dave was fond of 
the society of those he liked and particularly 
young people. His great warm heart overflowed 
not only with kindness and generosity, but with 
the love of harmless fun beside. He was never 
known to laugh aloud, but the distortions of his 
hairy face, and the convulsions of his huge 
frame, gave evidence of his ungovernable mirth. 
He was a great practical joker, and seemed at 
all times quite as pleased at becoming the sub- 
ject himself. And so one cold night, after he 
had cooked and eaten his supper and carefully 
set his alarm clock for the following morning 



154 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

(before going down to Tabor's store to spend the 
evening, as was his custom), Middleton in his ab- 
sence boldly removed the old clock from the wall 
behind his bunk, changed the alarm from where 
he had set it for six o'clock the following morn- 
ing to midnight of that night, and then, replac- 
ing it, retired to await the result. 

At the usual hour of. ten p. m. Uncle Dave 
crept cautiously in, and as ever, considerate of 
others, noiselessly disrobed in the darkness and 
rolling into his bunk was soon sound asleep. 

Patiently awaiting the approach of mid- 
night, there finally burst forth and rent the still- 
ness, the whirr, buzz and discordant jingle of the 
old alarm clock. 

Uncle Dave stirred slightly, then yawning, 
turned slowly over on his back, stretched his 
arms above his head, gaped repeatedly, then re- 
lapsing for a time into silent consideration of 
the matter, terminating with a long drawn yawn, 
arose slowly and under protest, dressed and ap- 
proaching the stove in the far corner of the room, 
muttered his surprise at the condition of the 
fire, then seemingly assured that it was all right, 
set to work preparing his breakfast. The water 
in the kettle was now boiling, the biscuit in the 
oven nearly done, and the meat sizzling cheerily 
in the frying pan, when, lighting his pipe and 
seating himself before the fire with the coffee 
mill between his knees, his eyes rested upon the 
clock; a frightful imprecation escaped his lips, 
as at the same time the pipe fell to the floor. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 155 

Rising suddenly he strode across the room to 
obtain a closer view, which but confirmed the 
discovery. Then the old man's expressions of 
his estimation of that time-piece actually stopped 
it, and shook the very bunks in which the re- 
maining sleepers rested. 

Despite the terrors of the scene, a snicker es- 
caped which reached his ear; then two young 
"tenderfeet" were ruthlessly hauled from their 
beds, slammed about the room in their night 
clothes, and finally, through the persuasiveness 
of a lustily wielded pack saddle cinch, induced 
to finish cooking the breakfast, wait upon the 
facetious old lad while he ate, and finally wash 
the dishes. 

Thus passed the days and nights during the 
winter of '77 and '78 up in the lonely and prac- 
tically snow-bound gulch in company with such 
others of the old characters remaining from 
placer days as "Put" Crane, Bob Berry, Tom 
Starr, Tom and Joe Wells, and many more 
herein unmentioned who were nightly callers at 
the cabin of John Thompson. A small band it 
was, taken altogether, though the foundation was 
being laid for a camp that would soon startle the 
world, yet not one of those then living there even 
dreamed of the storm of success and excitement 
hovering over it, and which burst with such fury 
but a few months later. 

The entire gulch at the opening of winter 
contained a population of less than four hundred 
people, men, women and children. 



156 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Eighteen months later it was the home of 
from 30,000 to 40,000 souls, and Leadville had 
become the second city in the state, with miles 
of its streets lighted by gas and adorned with 
modern buildings, private and public. Schools, 
hospitals and churches abounded as in the oldest 
and most enterprising of Eastern towns. 

Reference to Leadville churches at this date 
pictures in the writer's mind the striking con- 
trast with the conditions existing during the fall 
of 1877 so briefly preceding, when Capt. Breece 
died. He, after whom was named the famed 
Breece Hill. In arranging for his funeral, it 
was proposed by Tom Wells, another old timer, 
to read a chapter from the Bible, that some small 
degree of formality, solemnity and respect might 
attend the old pioneer's departure. But when 
that part of the programme involving religious 
services was reached and a search was ended of 
the old man's shelves and cupboard, it was found 
that no such work existed there. Hastily mes- 
sengers were sent to neighboring cabins, which 
at last revealed the fact that no such article as a 
book containing the Word of God was to be 
found in the possession of anyone. Finally a 
skirmisher returned having unearthed an Epis- 
copal prayer book, from which, with most extra- 
ordinary dignified and reverent mien and with 
an expression of face and tone of voice first be- 
speaking a meek apology to the deceased at the 
delay, then congratulation at having departed 
from a gulch so poorly provided with material 



KEMINTSCENT KAMBLINGS. 157 

for the preservation of the soul, Tom read page 
after page, until finally amongst those of the 
congregation who still remained, the only indi- 
vidual who had failed to murmur at the weari- 
ness and unrest was Breece himself. 

The winter with its alternating conditions of 
gloom and cheer wore gradually away. Very 
little was as yet being produced. 

Toward the close of winter the stock of pro- 
visions ran low; a long, tiresome journey on 
horseback through deep snows to Denver failed 
to arouse additional support in the undertaking. 

Slowly and sadly the writer wended his way 
back over the mountains, impecunious and for- 
lorn. Even the "usual ambition of "Old Nig, v 
the saddle horse, seemed blighted through the 
burden of gloom he bore upon his back. The 
trail appeared strewn with the wreck of castles, 
yachts and equipages, which upon former trips 
had been scattered by the way as the spontaneous 
product of a romantic, joyous and fruitful imag- 
ination of final results in the carbonate camp, 
while fanciful figures, perched upon the now 
crumbling arches and tottering turrets of 
dreamy creation, laughed in hollow mockery at 
one's distress. 



CHAPTEK IX. 

It required but little time to close up affairs 
in the gulch, when with animals packed, and 
accompanied by Middleton, we filed down the 
valley of the Arkansas past the mouth of Wes- 
ton's and on further south to Trout Creek Pass, 
simply to introduce new scenes and avoid a re- 
currence of sad reminiscences aroused through 
passing over the old route. 

Reaching Denver, the little outfit was stored 
and the animals turned loose upon the range. 
Denver and its vicinity in those days offered a 
far better field for an animal to obtain a living 
through its own efforts than for an individual. 
Bands of antelope then roamed freely over what 
is now the City Park and munched the rich dried 
"buffalo" grass, and rested at night upon the 
dry ground, in a dry atmosphere and beneath the 
clear blue sky and suffered little of the woes of 
the human being, who "dead broke/' sought in 
vain to earn his table board and room rent, for 
the town was then but little else than a sanita- 
rium filled with victims of the "white plague," 
many of whom were only threatened, or slightly 
affected, and they, too, short of means and ambi- 
tious to do almost anything to help pay expenses, 
until there was little to be had that would prop- 
erly clothe and feed a hearty, husky, hungry 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 159 

young prospector who was not receiving a cent 
from home. 

And so when it became quietly known that 
the "floor walker" in a certain dry goods store 
would probably soon be compelled to surrender 
his position, owing to ill health, no time was lost 
in applying for the position, for somehow the 
title sounded familiar after recent experiences ; 
and now while awaiting the vacancy, strolls were 
taken past the store regularly each morning, and 
a glance inside to see if he was still there, and 
note any little change for the worse in his condi- 
tion w T hich might have occurred during the 
night, but in some manner the man's health 
seemed to improve from the very date of applica- 
tion, until at last he reached a condition so dis- 
couraging that, abandoning further hope, ser- 
vice was engaged in at herding cattle for an old 
German named Captain Ochus, over near Mor- 
rison, at the foot hills of the range and about 
twelve miles from Denver. The Captain was a 
genial, diplomatic old Teuton, and conducted his 
negotiations with such subtleness as to place one 
in an absolutely defenceless position so far as 
the matter of pay was concerned. The impres- 
sion gained being that he had no particular ser- 
vice to perform worth mentioning, and did he 
have, of course thoroughly understood the bad 
form and discourteousness of approaching a 
party occupying the writer's station in life in 
the light of a wage earner. He was, in short, led 

to the proposition simply through the desire for 
11 



160 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

an association more congenial to his tastes, for 
truly the Captain was a cultivated old chap, edu- 
cated and possessed of varied accomplishments. 
To employ his own expression, he was "simply 
withering out there in the vulgar atmosphere of 
a cow camp through lack of association with 
some kindred soul." Notwithstanding all this, 
there was, it was true, some little service to per- 
form, which though scarcely sufficient to dispel 
the monotony of a continued life of idleness and 
ease, was nevertheless too great for the old gen- 
tleman to accept unless privileged to ease his 
sensitiveness through the payment of some little 
matter of form salary, say fifteen dollars per 
month. The writer was in addition, at perfect 
liberty to take along his saddle horse, as he might 
prove a satisfaction and convenience, while his 
keep at the ranch cut no figure whatever. 

When at last the Captain's proposition was 
all in, there remained no excuse for any counter 
proposition unless perhaps one chose to protest 
against accepting the fifteen dollars per month, 
or insisted upon at least paying for the keep of 
the horse, without exposure of actual condition, 
and absolute destruction of social and financial 
standing in the Captain's estimation. 

Considering the matter carefully, it seemed 
hard to rob the man of his innocent and sincere 
belief of the writer's affluence, for it had been a 
long time since he had enjoyed such an impres- 
sion on the part of anyone. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 161 

After a month at the ranch, it was easy to de- 
termine that, with sixteen hours each day in the 
saddle, beside a little batch of chores at the ranch 
night and morning, one was wholly unable to in- 
dulge the Captain along social lines to anywhere 
near the extent no doubt he had anticipated ; so 
with a keen sense of injustice and neglect, the 
writer remarked to him one night after coming 
in from the range, "Well, Captain, sorry to leave 
you, but actually I am becoming so attached to 
this sort of life that I fear its growing influence. 
The longer I remain, the more fascinated I find 
myself becoming with this indolent, Bohemian, 
butterfly existence, and the more difficult to for- 
sake it, while the fact is, my private interests 
demand an attention of which they have already 
been robbed to an alarming extent though an 
insane desire to devote myself to pleasure and re- 
creation of this sort." 

The Captain listened to this little valedictory 
with as great apparent credulity as his introduc- 
tory statements had been accepted on the day of 
engagement, though there was now plainly felt 
a dense atmosphere of mutual suspicion of each 
other's insincerity. 

The following morning the writer strolled 
leisurely along the trail to Denver, leading be- 
hind him the animated skeleton of what had been 
a saddle horse, and silently considering what 
sort of diet to invest the fifteen dollars in to most 
quickly and fully restore him. 



162 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Reaching Denver, Middleton Avas found a 
total wreck. He had but a short time previous 
formed the acquaintance of a gentleman of dash- 
ing and distinguished appearance, who had re- 
cently arrived in town, and from whose innocent 
and unassuming remarks let drop from time to 
time, a keen observer might easily detect a gen- 
tleman of unlimited means. He had traveled 
extensively, and all Europe seemed to remain as 
familiar to him as the cow camp experience does 
to the writer. Middleton had succeeded in get- 
ting very close to him, and had in fact been en- 
gaged by him to act as his private secretary, in 
which capacity he was to accompany him during 
the completion of his tour. Now, he was found 
alone, dejected, and his rich and aristocratic 
friend and employer missing. A most mysteri- 
ous proceeding, as the wealthy stranger had all 
the while confided in him closely, and like a true 
gentleman, whereby to remove from Middleton's 
sensitive nature any feeling of inequality or sub- 
ordination he might harbor due to the great dif- 
ference that existed in their worldly possessions, 
had dined with him at his modest eating place, 
the "Bon Ton" restaurant, to the extent that 
he had consumed his share of two five-dollar meal 
tickets, and meanwhile in a further spirit of ab- 
solute equality, had borrowed of him from time 
to time, small sums of money, all of which had 
been promptly repaid except the last, a ten-dollar 
note, which incidentally amounted to consider- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 163 

able more than all the balance of his previous 
loans combined. 

When everything else failed in this country 
at that time, there was one resource left, and one 
which was invariably resorted to. One could al- 
ways go out somewhere and take up a dry ranch, 
and not be trodden underfoot in a great stam- 
pede, for the supply of raw material was inex- 
haustible and reached to away down near the 
Missouri River on the east and from British Co- 
lumbia on the north to the "Panhandle" on the 
south, and, if the ranch was selected with rea- 
sonable judgment as to a locality where jack rab- 
bits were fairly plentiful, one was assured of a 
moderately good living, free from any excessive 
drudgery other than packing what little water 
was required a distance of anywhere from one to 
ten miles, which of itself didn't amount to much, 
for a "dry rancher" never uses water for any 
purpose except what little cooking he is com- 
pelled to do. 

~No other great degree of exertion was de- 
manded, unless perchance the rabbits became 
scarce or wild, or something of that sort. Viewed 
conservatively, the "dry ranch" presented many 
features that recommended it, especially to a 
person in the writer's condition. It was a safe 
business so far as losing money was concerned, 
although really at the time, it was unnecessary 
to give this feature much consideration. It 
moreover appealed to one most forcibly as a 



164 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

peaceful, healthful resort under certain condi- 
tions, free from extravagant influences and the 
annoying inquiries of a landlady. 

Away out on the "breaks" of Coal Creek, 
about twelve miles east of Denver, a location was 
made that seemed as good as any. A rough 
board "claim shanty," about eight feet square, 
without any floor, answered every purpose so far 
as the claimant was concerned, as a neighboring 
cow camp over on Coal Creek furnished an agree- 
able rendezvous during the day, while the nights 
were most commonly spent upon the ground in 
the open air; for like Mark Twain's "Claim 
Shanty," it had a hundred and sixty acres of 
government land to hold, which was pretty much 
its full capacity. 

Dry ranching, like all extremely safe enter- 
prises, where the possibility of monetary loss is 
largely eliminated, declares small dividends. 
The element chance, however, embraces in its 
catalogue of risks, others than that of monetary 
loss, and in the dry ranch out on the drainage of 
Coal Creek, one of these was soon discovered, for 
wherein as a producer of food stuff it didn't 
amount to much, as a preparatory institution for 
the insane asylum, it was unexcelled. 

It was now mid springtime, when one morn- 
ing saddling the bronco, who had been a constant 
companion (and who himself at times upon be- 
ing saddled, showed signs of the mental disturb- 
ance his master had for some time feared acquir- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 165 

ing) and leaving" the estate and its stock of coy- 
otes, rattlesnakes and jack rabbits without a 
caretaker, the journey was made to Denver in 
search of a new undertaking. 

The U. S. Geological Surveys of the West 
under Hay den dealt almost exclusively with the 
territory which embraced the absolute frontier, 
and was better known as the "Hayden Survey." 
Armed with the dignity, privilege and credit of 
the general government, the expedition each 
summer and autumn traversed and explored in 
comparative safety and comfort hundreds of 
miles of the practically unexplored areas occu- 
pied almost exclusively by the various Indian 
tribes, and provided the safest consort to the sci- 
entist of the East, together with the sons of Sena- 
tors and Congressmen who, longing for the ad- 
venturous, romantic and educational experience 
of a season in the wilds, eagerly sought a place 
thereon. It, however, became the writer's for- 
tune (through the kindly efforts of Thomas M. 
Patterson, of Denver, then a member of Con- 
gress and later of the Senate) to secure an ap- 
pointment as an attache of the survey during the 
campaign of 1878. 

"Davis Ranch," located about twelve miles 
from Cheyenne, Wyoming, was the home of one 
of the then existing large cattle companies, whose 
herds roamed at will from British Columbia to 
Texas. 

The work of the survey for the summer of 
1878 being the exploration of comparatively un- 



166 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

explored portions of Wyoming, Idaho and Mon- 
tana, this ranch was chosen as the point of con- 
centration for men, animals and supplies, where 
all arrangements would be made, divisions 
formed and plans of whatsoever nature outlined. 

Here now all was bustle, activity and excite- 
ment. Down on a little flat below the ranch 
buildings glistened a small army of tents. The 
ground about them was strewn with parapher- 
nalia of all sorts, while the members of the scien- 
tific departments busied themselves in its ar- 
rangement or passed about here and there, ex- 
tending their acquaintance with the new comers. 
Many were veterans upon the survey, having 
served for years preceding, while about an equal 
number were new recruits, obtained from widely 
separated localities, strangers to the regular 
force and to each other. 

A short distance away on the prairie was be- 
ing herded the bunch of mules which were to con- 
vey the members of the expedition and its sup- 
plies over the miles of desert and rugged moun- 
tain ranges during the lengthy campaign to fol- 
low. Busied with the herd were the packers, 
who were agreeing upon, and cutting out the an- 
imals each division was to employ, riding first 
one and then another to determine the very best 
saddlers for their own use, and the next best for 
the rank and file of the members (for the packer 
of those days was an important personage, and 
the Hayden Survey engaged only those of the 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 167 

« 

highest rank), the balance of the herd being left 
for pack animals. 

Under a wagon sheet stretched over a pole 
lounged a little commissariat, consisting of four 
colored cooks, who with the business man of the 
outfit, reviewed finally the list, embracing cook- 
ing utensils and provisions, to see that nothing 
had been overlooked. 

Up at the ranch headquarters Dr. Hayden 
himself, surrounded by his staff of chiefs of top- 
ography, geology, mineralogy, paleontology, en- 
tomology and such, too numerous to mention, was 
arranging finally the lesser details of the cam- 
paign, and assigning to the different depart- 
ments the new comers and subordinates, of 
whom the writer was one, and who, upon final 
adjustment of matters, found himself assigned to 
duty as assistant to Major Fred A. Clark, chief 
topographer. 

The Major was a man now approaching mid- 
dle age and had spent many years upon the sur- 
vey under Hayden, Wheeler and Powell. He 
was rather slight in build, though decidedly 
erect. He wore a dark moustache and beard of 
medium length. The beard was parted in the 
middle, after the style of a German field mar- 
shal, and brushed so abruptly apart that each 
particular hair occupied a position at absolutely 
right angles to its line of natural growth. In 
fact, the Major was noticeably a la militaire in 
all his movements and appearance, and as it de- 
veloped later, in his system of operations also. 



168 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Approaching with a pleasant smile, one of 
those peculiar blenclings of smile and manner, at- 
tended by few remarks (which arouses in one 
the suspicion that the combination is sort of a 
specific and not to be employed generally) while 
he accompanied the whole with cursory, wander- 
ing glances of inquiry ; not that he had met with 
anything particularly new, but more to deter- 
mine superficially in what particular, if any, 
the party differed from the multitude of similar 
subjects he had in former campaigns, and for 
like purposes, fallen heir to. Finally, introduc- 
ing Mr. Erastus St. John, the geologist of his 
party, he turned away, apparently having de- 
tected nothing of a nature to interest him 
further. 

Mr. St. John smoked a pipe continuously, 
save and except such time as he was either eating 
or sleeping ; if perchance he was at any other time 
found neglecting this indulgence of his habit, it 
was safely attributable to one of two causes, he 
was either out of health or out of tobacco. He 
was tall, angular, slightly stooped and wore leg- 
gins and glasses, as every well appointed geolo- 
gist should. He wore a moustache and heavy 
goatee, which, though his manner failed in that 
direction, imparted to his personal appearance a 
decidedly "Frenchy" contour, not of the social 
type, but that of the savant. His manner was 
genial, open, frank and unguarded, while he 
differed widely from the Major in that in the 
writer he seemed to have discovered something 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 169 

really worthy the manifestation of some little 
undisguised interest, which no doubt arose 
largely from fellow feeling, for he, too, though 
a man of middle age and possessed of some expe- 
rience as a geologist, was also a stranger upon the 
survey. 

The mineralogist, Mr. Nelson Perry, con- 
cluded the list of scientists in our party. Perry 
was a young man, a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, 
who had but recently completed his college 
course, and whose absolute inexperience in camp 
life, especially upon the frontier, placed him in 
pretty closely the same proportionate scale to the 
writer that he occupied in connection with the 
Major. And now having carefully noted the 
Major's air of experience, it was a pleasure to 
find amongst our number one upon whom an im- 
itation of his manner could be practiced without 
fear of detection. 

George and Mac, the packers, and Henry, the 
colored cook, alone remained to complete the 
members of our division. 

The fullest details having been arranged, the 
day finally came for the entire caravan to move. 
To save time in the long journey overland to 
reach the field of operation, the entire force and 
equipment was shipped westward from Chey- 
enne by rail, two of the divisions disembark- 
ing at Point of Rocks, while ours, together with 
the fourth or remaining one, continued on to 
Granger, now the junction of the Oregon Short 
Line Railway. Here unloading the mules and 



170 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

equipment, camp was established a short dis- 
tance westerly from the station and on the stream 
known as "Ham's Fork." Only sufficient time 
was spent at this point to arrange the supplies 
and general belongings, into suitable and easily 
accessible packs, settle finally the selection of our 
respective saddle mules, and close up our corre- 
spondence for the summer. 

For years the pack trains of the Hay den Sur- 
vey had been regarded as the finest equipped and 
best operated of any in the United States. They 
were copied from the Spanish absolutely, even 
to the small Mexican mules bred especially for 
this service; while no expense was spared in se- 
curing the best of everything pertaining to the 
equipment and its operation. 

The Spanish had no equals in this system 
of transportation, and through it were, in trav- 
ersing the unexplored and impenetrable landed 
areas of great portions of the earth, what Eng- 
land may at any time have been upon the sea ; 
hence a somewhat detailed description of the 
appointment and operation of one of these trains, 
may be of interest to the reader. 

For shelter there is provided a little "A" 
tent, which when set up occupies a space of about 
six by seven feet. They are intended for indi- 
vidual occupancy, but accommodate two persons 
with comfort. They are provided with end 
poles, jointed in the center, and held together 
with sockets of gas pipe. Each of these sections 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 171 

are about three feet in length, and when united 
give the ridge of the tent an elevation of about 
six feet. A half inch rope sewn into and along 
this ridge with ends extending from each termi- 
nus a length of some ten or tAvelve feet serve as 
fore and aft guys, which with the facilities for 
staking around the borders of the tent, give the 
shelter when erected a fairly strong support, 
the object in joining the end poles being conven- 
ience in packing. When un jointed and rolled 
up inside the tent, and the whole lashed firmly 
with the two end guys referred to, the package or 
bundle thus formed becomes of most desirable 
size and shape for such nurpose. To one inex- 
perienced it is quite astonishing the awkward 
and ill-shaped articles, which with proper con- 
veniences and skill on the part of the packer, 
may be conveyed over the roughest and most ir- 
regular ground on the back of an animal. And 
one of the greatest conveniences referred to is a 
sufficiency of desirable packages, such as blan- 
kets properly prepared, or the tents alluded to, 
that the less convenient articles may find proper 
seats or nests, and over all of which the "lash 
rone" may bind and cling tightly. The saddle 
used is what is known as the "Aparejo." This 
is simply a large leathern affair, somewhat re- 
sembling a pair of huge saddle bags, rectangular 
in shape when flattened out, having a width of 
about two feet, and a length of some four or ^Ye 
feet. On the inner side, and reaching from 
either end to within a few inches of the center 



172 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

are two large pockets. Into these are first in- 
serted a framework of willow sticks cut to the 
proper length and placed vertically. This for 
the purpose of giving to that portion covered by 
the pocket a certain degree of stability, or stiff- 
ness, at the same time embodying flexibility. 
Then the space between the framework of willow 
and the inner side of the pocket may be packed or 
padded with hay or dried grasses of any sort 
convenient to obtain. This padding may at 
will, be removed at one point and added to at 
another as the occasion may demand, that the 
bearing points may be made to fit any beast of 
burden whatsoever to which it may be applied. 
When prepared it is thrown across the animal's 
back (over a proper arrangement of saddle blan- 
kets), the padded portions hanging down on 
either side. A broad "cinch" is then thrown 
over the whole, passed under the animal's body 
and tightened. As the tightening proceeds, the 
stiffened and padded pockets are pressed to the 
beast's sides, while the central or unpadded sec- 
tion, acting as a hinge, is forced upward, and 
so entirely clear of the spine that the arm may 
be passed freely along the vertebrge, and beneath 
the roof formed by the apex of the saddle ; thus 
as may be seen, the load in place of resting flat 
upon the back, is carried wholly upon the ani- 
mal's sides. A breast collar and breeching at- 
tached prevents movement either forward or 
backward. A "sling" rope is then thrown over 
the aparejo, the side packs placed in position, 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 173 

and the ends of the rope fastened at a point 
which will carry the packs high or low, as may 
be desired. The side packs in place, the burden 
is broadened, and a platform or surface created, 
upon which the "top" packs may rest. These 
placed in their proper position, a "nianta," 
which is simply a piece of hydraulic canvas of 
the proper size, is placed to cover the entire 
cargo. The "lash" rope is then thrown and 
drawn tight, binding the whole firmly. The 
animal may now be driven all day in a continu- 
ous rainstorm, and when camp is reached at 
night, the cargo will be found as free from mois- 
ture as though transported in a Pullman car. 

The matter of adjusting and fastening the 
lash rope differs materially from the familiar 
and commonplace method known as the "squaw 
hitch," and involves a scientific and ingenious 
principle. It is known as the "diamond hitch," 
and any packer ignorant of it, or in fact un- 
skilled in its application, could not hope for rec- 
ognition in the upper circles of packers. The 
conveniences of this hitch are as follows: 
First, like all lash ropes, this has attached to 
one end a cinch, in the end of which is a hook, 
commonly of iron, though amongst the more 
skillful and fastidious it is of wood, preferably 
the forks of a branch or root about one inch in 
diameter and of some tough, strong shrub. This 
hook of wood is preferred from the fact that it 
presents so great a bearing for the lash rope, with 



174 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 

the least possible weight, and becoming polished, 
permits the rope to slip freely in taking up slack. 
In applying the hitch, the boss packer stands 
at the near side of the mnle, and is commonly re- 
ferred to as the "near packer," the assistant 
packer, occupying a position on the opposite side 
of the animal, is referred to as the "off packer.'* 
AVith the lash rope coiled in his left hand (save 
a few feet of the end to which is attached the 
cinch), the "near packer'* swings the cinch un- 
der the animal's body, when it is caught by the 
"off packer." He then further throws the coil 
diagonally across the top of the pack from the 
animal's left shoulder to the right hip, or the 
process may be reversed, and it be thrown from 
the left hip to the right shoulder. A loop is then 
passed over the top of the pack, which is received 
by the "off packer," and caught into the cinch 
hook described. He then places his knee againsc 
the animal's side and cinches or draws the rope 
through the hook with all possible tightness, the 
slack being taken up by the "near packer," who 
then passes the slack rope around one end and 
underneath the side pack, when, stepping to the 
animal's hip, he places one foot against the end 
of the pack, and draws the rope tightly; then 
holding it in place the "off packer" draws it 
lightly from the opposite side, then passes it 
down around one end of the "off" side pack, and 
along underneath, where he again draws or 
cinches the rope, then up and over the other end, 
where it is cinched again, and finally by the 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 175 

"near packer/' who then makes the end fast by 
simply and quickly drawing it underneath the 
binding ropes. The advantages of this hitch are, 
first, there is no tugging and straining to tuck 
the end of the rope under a portion already 
drawn and pressing tightly upon the pack, the 
rope being so placed upon the pack to commence 
that this is unnecessary. Next, in shifting, or 
tightening the pack, it is only necessary to let 
loose the proper amount of slack and re-cinch 
without displacing or disturbing anything. 
Again, when about to unpack, there is no untie- 
ing of knots or pulling or hauling of ropes. The 
slack is again simply let loose to an extent in 
which the "off packer" is enabled to remove the 
hook from the loop, when the whole network of 
lashing is made free, and lifted off without 
further operation, and with no entanglement of 
the ropes, save a single loose knot. 

As stated, the most desirable animal also for 
pp eking purposes is the Spanish mule, or a mule 
of like dimensions, weighing from 700 to 800 
pounds. They are sure-footed, strong and good 
travelers. Many of them are also excellent sad- 
dlers, especially upon long journeys over rough 
and uneven ground. They are very intelligent, 
and after short service become extremely cun- 
ning in avoiding the duties required. An oper- 
ation most distasteful to them is that of cinching 
the saddle or aparejo, which occurs most com- 
monly of course in breaking camp in the morn- 
ing, and while their stomachs are filled from a 
12 



176 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

night of grazing. As the regular hour approaches 
for saddling up, many of them will steal away 
and hide behind some neighboring rock or clump 
of bushes. As preparations are made for cinch- 
ing, they will watch cautiously, and simultane- 
ously with the first tug at the cinch will bcw 
their sides in the direction of the operator, at 
the same time inhaling to their fullest extent. 
An old mule who has become really scientific in 
this respect will keep an inexperienced packer 
busy cinching and re-cinching for two hours be- 
fore he is ready to start, and then only to find 
that the operation must be repeated in the first 
half mile after leaving camp. The only man- 
ner in which to thwart their purpose and prop- 
erly complete the task, is either to wait for a 
few moments until the mule is off guard, and 
then quickly gather in the slack, or through the 
"off packer," turning him suddenly to the left 
during which his attitude of resistance is de- 
stroyed. Each mule wears a halter, the stale 
of which is caught up in the ropes of the pack. 
Accompanying each train of mules is a horse of 
some description, color preferably white or gray, 
wearing a cow bell about the neck, and commonly 
called the "bell mare." The mules will follow 
this animal as a colt follows its mother, and in 
case of peril or distress on its part, will manifest 
the anguish of a child over its parent. 

When turned loose to graze, only the "bell 
mare" requires to be hobbled or picketed, thus 
giving the mules entire freedom in searching for 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 177 

food, while to stampede them, or ride or drive 
one away, is next to impossible. 

The movements of a pack train, and especi- 
ally that of the Hayden Survey were as follows : 
The cook and packers were first to arise in the 
morning, the balance of the party may arise at 
any time, early enough, however, wherein to 
prepare their belongings in proper bundles for 
packing, that no delay may be occasioned, while 
later each saddles his own riding animal. While 
the cook proceeds with breakfast, the packers 
gather up the mules and bringing them into 
camp, a halter is placed on each, and they are 
hitched in a row to a rope stretched upon the 
ground, and fastened at each end to a strong hub 
or stake, when operations are continued in plac- 
ing the aparejos upon their backs, and other- 
wise preparing them to receive their loads. This 
completed, breakfast is waiting, which finished, 
packing commences at a lively rate, the "kitch- 
en mule," or that one carrying the kitchen uten- 
sils, being left until the last, that the cook may 
have sufficient time in which to wash the dishes 
and otherwise prepare the outfit. The kitchen 
outfit is ingeniously and compactly arranged for 
packing in two boxes of the following dimen- 
sions, approximately : width, 14 inches ; height, 
18 inches, and length, 28 inches, forming ex- 
cellent side packs. Each of these boxes is pro- 
vided with a false top resting on cleats, also 
double covers or lids hinged together and to the 



178 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

box. They may now be converted into a dining 
table seven feet in length, 28 inches in width and 
18 inches in height, by simply placing the boxes 
a sufficient distance apart, in which the folding 
lids, when opened and extended horizontally, 
will just meet. The kitchen mule packed, all is 
in readiness and the march begins in the fol- 
lowing order: 

The "near packer" leads the way, unless per- 
haps the party may have a professional guide; 
next follows the cook, riding the bell mare, 
and followed closely by the train of pack mules 
in single file. Behind these rides the "off 
packer," whose duty it is to watch the line of 
packs and in case one is discovered as being 
loose, getting to one side, or for any reason not 
riding properly, to call the name of the mule to 
the packer in the lead, who riding to one side of 
the train, dismounts and upon the approach of 
the mule in question, leads it to one side and 
drops a leathern blind over its eyes. In the 
meantime the rear packer has galloped ahead to 
the spot, and dismounting, the pack is quickly 
adjusted, the lash rope re-tightened, when re- 
moving the blind from the mule's eyes, it starts 
rapidly forward and assumes a rear position in 
the train, while the packers remounting quickly 
resume their original places. During all this 
no delay has been occasioned, the movements of 
the train not having been disturbed in any man- 
ner. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 179 

The members of the party, aside from those 
mentioned, ride in such order as they choose. 

Upon going into camp the packers dismount, 
and without waiting to unsaddle, simply throw 
their bridle reins upon the ground (in which 
condition the animal will usually remain stand- 
ing), and now, first unpack the kitchen mule, 
that the cook may not be detained in preparing 
the meal. The loads are all finally removed, 
then in their turn the aparejos, when the riding 
animals being unsaddled, the whole are turned 
loose to graze under the guidance of their chap- 
eron, the bell mare. 

The packers now set to work with rigid dis- 
cipline in the adjustment of the packing para- 
phernalia. The aparejos are set up in line like 
little "A" tents minus their ends, under each of 
which is placed the lash and sling ropes neatly 
coiled together with the halter of the respective 
mule. The canvas mante is then turned over, 
all in which condition complete protection is 
furnished from storms. The cook meantime is 
busily engaged with the meal, while the balance 
of the party occupy their time in pitching their 
tents and spreading their blankets upon bushes 
to air. 

With the provisions described for journey- 
ing through an uninhabited land abounding with 
wood, water, grass, game and fish, no method 
has ever yet been devised which approaches it 
from the standpoint of independence, exhilara- 
tion and comfort. Even in case of sickness or 



180 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 

injury to a member of the party, the patient may 
be transported upon a stretcher carried between 
two well-disposed mules, with quite the gentle- 
ness and comfort of more modern methods. 
While the vision feasts upon no more pictur- 
esque or poetic panorama than that of a long 
line of sleek pack mules strung out in single file 
as they wend their way through park and wood- 
land, then upward and along the precipitous 
faces of rugged mountains, into deep shadows, 
and out again into bright flashes of sunlight, 
with brilliant reflections from the glossy coat of 
the animal, and the white mante which covers 
the burden so jauntily borne. While seen from 
a distance, and with some imagination, their 
long ears fixed at different angles, they appear 
like a line of giant jack rabbits, with white 
bodies and dark colored extremities. 

With well operated trains it is customary to 
make but one drive during the day, leaving 
camp ordinarily about eight in the morning, and 
traveling until about 2 :00 p. m., when camp is 
pitched and the day's march ended. By this sys- 
tem it has been demonstrated that the greatest 
service can be derived, and the greatest distance 
covered during a season, the continued practice 
of unpacking and repacking at noon exerting a 
far more damaging effect upon the stock than a 
rapid single drive of less hours, yet nearly equal 
distance. 



CHAPTER X. 

Everything in readiness at the camp on 
Ham's Fork, the long line of pack animals 
stretched out in single file, began their march 
toward the far distant and unfrequented lands 
of the North. Straight away over the bleak, 
barren hills their course was shaped about north- 
east to strike the valley of the Green River, 
whose nearest point was some twenty miles dis- 
tant, thence by easy stages up and along the val- 
ley of this stream during the first few days, from 
the fact that the loads were now heavy and the 
mules not yet hardened to the service after their 
long term of idleness upon the range following 
the close of the campaign of the year previous. 

The total eclipse of July 29, 1878, was near 
at hand, and the caravan was hastening to reach 
a point along the route, well within the line of 
totality. This would occur but a short dis- 
tance ahead, and in about longitude 33 degrees 
west, latitude 42 degrees and 30 minutes north. 
On the day of its occurrence camp was pitched at 
about 11 :00 a. m. on a small stream known as 
Piney Creek, a tributary of the Green River. 
A hasty dinner prepared and eaten, full arrange- 
ments were made for an observance of the plan- 
etary phenomenon to follow. Scarce had the last 
detail been arranged, when the bright sunshine 



182 EEMINISCEJ5TT RAMBLINGS. 

melted away into a sickly subdued light, which 
gradually increasing its intensity, assumed 
an orange hue, while lights and shadows with 
blendings of green and yellow settled upon the 
hilltops and spread far away down into the val- 
leys, clothing the entire landscape in a mantle of 
serpentine hues appalling to behold, and as start- 
ling to the senses as the skin of the Gila mon- 
ster. The mules grazing about the camp lifted 
their heads and gazed at each other with suspic- 
ion, and in mute inquiry. Then seemingly con- 
vinced that it was a manifestation in which no 
member of their band had any part, they scanned 
the horizon carefully, then drifted about the 
bell mare, where they huddled closely for pro- 
tection or further information. Gradually the 
bright hues of mottled light faded away and 
blended themselves into utter darkness. The 
mules slightly separated, and one after another 
laid down upon the ground, until nearly all were 
at rest. The darkness continued for some time, 
when the process which led up to its occurrence 
recommenced in reverse order, passing through 
all the changes, until finally the sun again burst 
forth in all its glory. The mules gradually 
arose, assumed their first glances of suspicion at 
each other, discovered nothing, then looked 
briefly elsewhere for some solution with like re- 
sult; the bell mare seeming wholly unable to 
explain the matter, they finally abandoned fur- 
ther investigation and resumed grazing. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 183 

The work of this division of the Survey was 
to commence in the immediate locality, while 
that of the division accompanying was laid in 
and about the Yellowstone National Park. 
Hence from here the paths led in different direc- 
tions; they, continuing the journey northward, 
while we moved westward up Piney Creek to its 
head in the southern extremity of the Wyoming 
mountains, and occupied Wyoming Peak as the 
first topographical station. It was wholly from 
such commanding elevations as this that the top- 
ographical work was done. The same stations 
having been previously occupied as triangula- 
tion stations through which a network of meas- 
urements had been accomplished covering the en- 
tire country, and connecting all prominent 
points. With this completed, the topographical 
work followed, and from these greater elevations 
first sketched the entire field as bounded by the 
horizon, showing the main drainage and water 
sheds, local divides and prominent features of 
whatsoever nature. Then to the heads and 
mouths of streams, to mountain peaks and points 
of ridges or divides, courses were read and re- 
corded. Again they were observed from other 
stations, when the coincidence of the lines lo- 
cated the features sought with accuracy. Ele- 
vations at all points desired were obtained by 
barometric measurement. Thus it may be seen 
how with comparatively little time and expense, 
the features of a great and unknown area may 
be set forth with a fair degree of accuracy, with- 



184 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

out the use of either chain or steel tape in the 
measurement of distance or the engineer's level 
with which to determine elevations. In com- 
mencing the system of measurements by triangu- 
lation over any given area, a base line is first 
located with accuracy, and its length then meas- 
ured with still greater accuracy, for the error 
arising from its location is only constant, while 
that arising from an incorrect measurement of 
its length is augmentive. 

For operations covering great areas of many 
thousand square miles, a base of not less than 
ten miles in length is usually employed, the 
longer, of course, the more correct the results 
which emanate from it, in that the distant angle 
may not be rendered too small and indefinite. 
Coupled with this great length of line, must of 
necessity be a knowledge of the absolute correct- 
ness of that length. For as will be readily un- 
derstood, whatever error exists in this direction 
will be conveyed to the operations based upon it 
in such proportion as their distance is extended. 
The measurement of this line is usually made 
with compensating rods ; the expansion and con- 
traction of a steel tape being too great for the 
accuracy required. 

While the Major and his assistant were en- 
gaged at the different stations far up on the high- 
est peaks, Mr. St. John, the geologist, and Mr. 
Perry, the mineralogist, scoured the lower coun- 
try roundabout, in determination of the geolog- 
ical structure, and its evidence of mineral re- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 185 

source. Aside from the rock formations and 
the minerals embraced, they also in the absence 
of special talent observed the general interesting 
features and economic resources of the section, 
such as timber and other vegetation, soda, sul- 
phur, chalybeate and thermal springs; the flow 
of important streams and the character of sur- 
rounding soils. 

Gradually working northward along the 
western slope of the Wyoming mountains to a 
point north of Mt, Lander and McDougal Gap, 
the Snake Eiver presented itself some twenty- 
five or thirty miles distant, and at a point where, 
after a lengthy and sinuous pilgrimage of its 
waters, starting from far away up in the Yellow- 
stone Park as the overflow from Shoshone Lake, 
it flows due south for many miles through the 
wildest and most picturesque of lands, until at 
last freeing itself in a degree from its lateral 
barriers, it enters the northern extremity of that 
yet remote and unfrequented mountain park 
known as "Jackson's Hole," when as though ex- 
hausted from its struggle in battling for a path- 
way through the broken country traversed, it 
quiets down for a time to rest in the watery way 
station of Jackson's Lake, then resumes its 
course through the park to its southern extrem- 
ity, a distance of some thirty or forty miles, 
when at last frenzied over its continuous confine- 
ment, it turns sharply and attacking its moun- 
tain barrier on the right, rends it in twain, leav- 
ing what is now known as the Snake Eiver 



186 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Range to the north and the Salt River and Wyo- 
ming Ranges to the south; then joyously and 
tumultuously rushes westward toward its parent, 
the Pacific. 

Far away to the west, across the valley of the 
"John Day" river and high up in the "Salt 
River range," towered a commanding peak which 
the Major determined to occupy. Late that 
night he made drainage sketches in the sand and 
ashes about the camp fire to fully inform the 
boss packer of his march upon the following day, 
and the exact point some fifteen miles distant 
where camp should be established and where it 
might be found at nightfall after a lengthy de- 
tour via of the distant peak across the valley to 
the west, and whose brow alone was the follow- 
ing morning illumined with a "Rembrandt light- 
ning" of the sun's rays when the Major and the 
writer, saddling our mules, with an extra 
blanket tied behind each saddle, a couple of bis- 
cuits each in our pockets, the gradientor slung to 
his back, and the "Cistern" barometer to my 
own, rode rapidly down the slope and out 
across the valley of the John Day. 

High up in the magnificent forest which 
clothed the mountain side, a noble buck crossed 
the pathway; then, in his inexperience, turned 
for a moment to watch our approach. The Major 
raised his rifle, fired and killed him. Dismount- 
ing, the carcass was dressed and the saddles 
slung to a convenient limb. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 187 

Near the close of work on the mountain 
top a feeling of illness possessed the writer. 
Hurrying down the mountain, the illness in- 
creased, until reaching the river, unable to sit 
in the saddle longer, a hasty camp was made 
upon its bank. 

The shades of night were gathering deep 
in the valley when the Major, abandoning his 
efforts as nurse and leaving both blankets for 
hospital use, hurried away with the mules in 
search of camp and further relief. 

Dragging the blankets and rifle into a dense 
portion of the thicket bordering the river bank, 
slumber soon ensued. Later, when startled into 
consciousness by the piercing howl of a timber 
wolf not a dozen paces distant, all was darkness, 
and no form was visible save the dark outline 
of the mountain range on either side of the 
valley as they appeared in profile against the 
sky. I staggered to my feet, but fell again. An 
intense illness seemed to possess every part, 
while a raging fever accompanied the whole; 
and, shuddering in helplessness as the purpose of 
the wolf in calling its companions was divined, 
sought to disabuse its mind of the belief formed 
through its natural instincts of inability for 
self-protection by raising the rifle and firing a 
shot in its direction. A rustling of the underbrush 
followed as he glided stealthily and rapidly 
away. Then from a distance he howled again, 
probably countermanding the first signal. Crawl- 
ing down to the edge of the stream, I drank, and 



188 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

remaining for a time before returning to the 
brush, the great full harvest moon to the south 
appeared resting the lower portion of its rim 
upon the backbone of an outlying and naked 
spur of the range. Sitting there, bathed in its 
soft, soothing, mellow light, the sight fixed upon 
the monstrous glowing orb, there suddenly trot- 
ted down the ridge and into the field of its great 
circle of light, a noble elk, who, halting for an 
instant at the proper point, the distance being 
such his entire form, including the majestic 
antlers, appeared silhouetted upon the bright 
shining surface of the great golden disk. For 
an instant he stood there, tossed his head 
haughtily, and, passing on into the darkness 
which surrounded the outer rim on the one 
side, there suddenly emerged from the darkness 
which surrounded it on the other, and passed 
in panorama before the golden mirror (where 
he had recently paused to be admired) the 
entire band of which he was the leader. 

Now a violent crashing in the brush, but 
a short distance away, accompanied by snorts 
and grunts, made known the presence of a bear. 
Again too weak to raise the rifle, it was drawn 
across the knee, and pointing the muzzle in the 
direction of the sounds, fired again. Another 
snort, and a crashing of the brush through which 
his line of retreat was marked for some distance, 
until finally the sounds were lost, together with 
all further recollection. Passing into a stupor, 
disturbed by distressing dreams of fearful 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 189 

sights and harrowing sounds, there came at last 
a far-away plaintive cry, now approaching and 
becoming plainer, then receding until almost 
lost, to which all other fancies gave place, and 
which to an unconscious mind seemed to con- 
tinue for an endless time. Finally, a growing 
warmth, coupled with strangulation and violent 
contortions, brought partial consciousness, as, 
opening my eyes, I gazed about in the bright 
sunlight, and sought vainly for a time to identify 
the scene. There was a most vivid impression of 
being lifted and tugged about, associated with 
a faint recollection of the wolf and bear. Then 
voices about dispelled the thought; the faint 
outline of reality began to appear, and I gazed 
upward into the face of George, the packer, 
upon whose knee my head was resting. It was 
but an outline yet, and dim at that. The face 
was seen, it was familiar, but could not be re- 
called. His language was plain to be heard, but 
its meaning could not be gathered. Then another 
voice attracted attention, a hand inserted some- 
thing between the lips, and, as the strong Scotch 
whiskey trickled down the throat, a burst of 
strangulation brought further awakening, and I 
looked understandingly into the face of Mac, 
the remaining packer. Little by little con- 
sciousness returned, and their remarks became 
intelligible. It was now past noon; they had 
left camp in the morning, for the Major, lost in 
the darkness of the forest, had camped all night 
on the trail. 



190 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

It was easy for them, experienced mountain- 
eers, with the instructions received and following 
back upon the trail of the two mules, to find 
the point at the river ; but another thing to locate 
in a forest of willows and underbrush covering 
hundreds of acres, an inanimate object for 
which they sought. For hours they rode through 
the tangle calling loudly, until finally, the mule 
of one, coming near, bolted and revealed the 
point of concealment. 

In addition to their saddle animals, they had 
brought an old ambulance mule who was a 
specialist in this class of work, and had seen 
service along this line over hundreds of miles 
of wild western frontier. He was getting old 
now, and a slight visual imperfection that had 
always possessed him had increased. Being 
lifted into the saddle upon his back, then 
securely fenced in with great rolls of blankets 
well up to the armpits, and the whole lashed 
tightly to the mule, George struck out, leading 
the way to camp, while Mac rode beside where 
the trail would permit and close in the rear when 
it would not, and hurried forward the old mule, 
who, through his distorted vision, mistook the 
trunks of trees six inches in diameter lying 
across the trail for obstacles six feet in height, 
and insisted upon jumping them, until piteous 
pleadings were made for relief in another camp 
by the trail. Then they each lied encouragingly 
about camp being just around the next point, not 
half a mile away, smiled sympathetically, gave 



REMINISCENT EAMBEINGS. 191 

each other a knowing look, and Mac, striking 
the old mule an extra blow with his quirt, 
he trotted faster and jumped higher than ever. 
I swore and threatened, and plead with them 
alternately, then fainted; and returning to con- 
sciousness swore some more, while Mac plied 
the quirt with renewed vigor about the old 
mule's hindquarters and remarked to George 
in an undertone, "he'll make it all right; he's 
a heap better 'en he was." 

When, a few days later, the mountain sage 
for a half mile about camp had all been gathered 
and boiled and the writer alone had drank the 
entire product, the outfit pushed onward into 
Jackson's Hole, a section which had teemed 
with the wild life of hunter and trapper a half 
a century prior, and made historic through 
Washington Irving's "Adventures of Captain 
Bonneville." For it was here and in Pierre's 
Hole to the westward in Idaho that the great 
trading camps of the American Fur Company 
under Fontenelle, the Eocky Mountain Fur Com- 
pany under Capt. William Sublette and Robert 
Campbell, together with the two organizations 
headed by Nathaniel J. Wyeth of Boston, and 
Captain Bonneville formerly of the U. S. Army, 
respectively, made their main camps and dealt 
out gewgaws and whiskey to the Indians, and 
little advanced white hunters and trappers, at 
enormous profit and in exchange for the valuable 
skins of the fur-bearing animals they had caught. 

13 



192 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

What scenes were enacted here where now all is 
solitude ! When near the close of a season's trap- 
ping, the pack trains of the traders, after a long 
and adventurous pilgrimage from the Missouri 
River, finally came to a halt in these wild and 
remote mountain fastnesses, and unpacking 
their loads of bright and glittering baubles, there 
crowded about a complete gathering of these 
simple children of the forest, red and white, 
male and female, old and young, as visionary 
and simple in their judgment and as defence- 
less in their own protection against the wiles 
of trade as the group of children who to-day 
gather about the Christmas tree. And this 
finally intensified through the power of rum, 
which invariably formed a portion of the cargo. 

Here in the depths of this now uninhabited 
region our party came upon the decayed evi- 
dence of one of these winter camps where dwelt 
these beings during the long winter and ate and 
slept, and gamboled and frolicked, and cleaned 
their guns and traps, and prepared their bait 
for the beaver, while the pack trains wended 
their way back to the States laden with peltries, 
to return again the following season with their 
regular load of bait for them. 

It was here in this great depression, sur- 
rounded by towering peaks, that Joseph More, 
a young Bostonian of Wyeth's band, Alfred K. 
Stephens of St. Louis, a party named Fox, two 
grandsons of Daniel Boone, and two other 
parties, a total of seven, having tired of the 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 193 

environment of Pierre's Hole, attempted to 
return to the States, and, in crossing Jackson's 
Hole, were set upon by a band of Blackfeet 
Indians and More, Fox and Stephens were 
killed, while the balance, after long wandering 
and much suffering, finally reached their start- 
ing point in Pierre's Hole. Sometime later, 
Bonneville, in crossing from his camp in Green 
Piver Basin to Salmon Piver in Idaho, found 
the bones of the three unfortunates gnawed 
clean of flesh by wild beasts, bleached aand scat- 
tered amongst the rocks. Gathering them to- 
gether, he constructed three complete skeletons 
and caused them to be decently interred. Their 
resting place unkempt, indefinite, and remote, 
yet remains unfrequented and unknown by even 
the few adventurous spirits who in recent years 
at intervals invade this wild domain. 

The district assigned to this division of the 
survey embraced a superficial area of some four 
thousand square miles, and involved a most 
interesting drainage system covering portions of 
the water-sheds of each, the Missouri, the Colo- 
rado and the Columbia Rivers. The area tribu- 
tary to the two last mentioned streams was clad 
in dense coniferous forests abounding with 
game, while its waters teemed with fish. 

Leaving the John Day at some distance 
from its mouth, a crossing was made of the low 
divide on the east to the headquarters of a small 
parallel stream, down which our way was 



194 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

wended to the Snake at the point where it com- 
mences to canon. Across the river the hills 
arose abruptly in grand escarpments, which, 
in their vivid colors of red and brown, pre- 
sented not only a beautiful example of mountain 
sculpture, but a striking geological exposure of 
the Jurassic and Triassic formations. 

A short distance up the stream descended, 
and on the opposite side, were found the evidence 
of some adventurous spirits' attempts to possess 
themselves of that hypnotic element, gold, lured 
as men still are by these remote and apparently 
verdant fields. Long years had passed since 
their efforts ceased, while wind and storm and 
decay had meantime vandalized the works they 
had created until now there could barely be 
distinguished the grade line of a small canal, its 
channel filled, its banks wasted, and the whole 
overgrown with weeds and grass. Here beneath 
our feet lay the rotted remains of a few pieces 
of plank, which had been "whip sawed" from 
the trunk of a neighboring tree. There, half 
buried in the earth, and over which vegetation 
had long grown, flourished and decayed, was 
buried the blade of a shovel with a fragment 
of the handle still protruding to mark the spot. 
Other evidences still remaining indicated they 
had made little arrangement for departure, and, 
unquestionably, had either fled before the wrath 
of the aboriginal proprietors or suffered the 
results of capture. 

Journeying on up the Snake and along the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 195 

line of "red buds" which towered across the 
river, a beautiful cascade fell in silvery spray 
from their summit, and to which was now given 
that not entirely uncommon name of "Bridal 
Veil Falls." 

Further appeared the mouth of a large 
stream which entered the Snake from the east 
and at the very southern extremity of Jackson's 
Hole. It was what is known as Hoback's river, 
a not only formidable but historic stream, for 
its shores were the great highway of the fur 
companies hereinbefore mentioned in entering 
and departing from the main camps in Pierre's 
and Jackson's Holes on their pilgrimages to and 
from the east. An extremely low divide and 
pass separated its head-waters from Green river 
basin. Along the borders of this stream there 
were still discernible here and there traces of 
these early trails or pathways. 

Some twenty-five miles or so to the north, 
and nearly parallel with this, coursed another 
important stream known as "Gross Ventre riv- 
er," while between the two lay a rugged, heavily 
timbered country, intricately sculptured in 
forming the tributaries of the two streams 
referred to. Through this wild area the outfit 
moved hither and thither in outlining its intri- 
cacies and determining its economic resources, 
while the pathway was literally obstructed by 
the dense flora which flourished upon the surface 
everywhere, and the varied and multitudinous 
fauna which subsisted upon and dwelt within its 



196 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

shelter and protection. The wildness of the 
game was of a degree which rendered it tame in 
the presence of man, of whose murderous incli- 
nations the present generation appeared to pos- 
sess no knowledge. Probably few of them had 
ever heard a rifle shot, and fewer still had ever 
experienced or witnessed its results. 

The writer recalls an experience in the very 
heart of this impenetrable wild in which, in 
company with others of the party, in descend- 
ing from an elevation, the upper portions of 
which were free of timber and densely covered 
with luxuriant a bunch grass," the sun still a 
half hour from its disappearance beneath the 
artificial horizon, its soft mellow rays mingling 
with the rich, dark mantle of the pine and 
spruce, and the lighter hued foliage of the aspen 
groves which fringed them, lighting up bright 
patches upon the exposed branches and casting 
in contrast deep shadows beneath, the whole 
forming a great field of green, bordering the 
grassy shores of a beautiful mountain park, that 
rested peacefully below. 

Riding downward, there came suddenly 
from the depths of an aspen thicket, which ran 
far down a drain that broke through the pine 
and spruce timber, the rich, melodious notes 
of the "bugling" of an elk. To one who has 
listened to the melody of these tones bursting 
forth from the stillness of the forest, no descrip- 
tion, or attempted imitation, is necessary. The 
first call was answered by another, and then 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 197 

another, until the hills reverberated the multi- 
tude of voices in one unbroken sea of sound. 
The greatest gathering seemed to be in the 
depths of the gulch, and, separating, the balance 
of the party stole noiselessly toward its northern 
slopes, while the writer alone hurried to the 
line of contact between the heavy timber and 
the dense quaking aspens which clothed the 
southerly slope. Reaching a place of conceal- 
ment somewhat in advance of the party's on- 
slaught from the opposite side, and lying 
quietly and expectantly in hiding, there came 
at last the sharp crack of a rifle, quickly fol- 
lowed by another and another, when instantly 
the thicket far up and down was lashed into 
fury as though by a mighty tempest, the crash- 
ing of brush and trampling of hoofs adding to 
the confusion and excitement of the scene as 
hundreds of elk rushed headlong toward the 
ambush. Nearer and nearer approached the 
advance line of the host, the aspens being so 
dense that no view could be obtained of them 
at a greater distance than ten feet. Suddenly 
the brush parted, a magnificent bull plunged 
through, caught sight of the enemy, came for an 
instant to a sudden halt, then, determined upon 
his headlong course, leaped directly over the 
writer's body, as, attempting to dodge, he trip- 
ped and fell upon the ground and quietly yet 
nervously remained there amidst trampling 
hoofs, as hundreds of the noble creatures tore 
onward and finally plunged into the dark and 



198 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

sheltering depths of the evergreen forest which 
lay above. Such were the game conditions of all 
this portion of the Kock Mountain region even 
until so late as this. 

Working northward (with easterly and 
westerly elongations) to the waters of the Gross 
Ventre, thence easterly toward its headwaters 
and over the divide en route to a Camp Brown/' 
a frontier military post, now named Fort Wash- 
akie, situate on the east of the Wind Kiver 
mountains, at the forks of Little Wind river 
and more than one hundred and fifty miles dis- 
tant by the trail, a descent was made into the 
head of Green River basin at a point where 
the nascent waters of the Green, starting far up 
in the fastnesses of the Wind River range and 
fed by the eternal snows of Fremont and other 
peaks, flows due north for a distance of some 
fifteen miles until intercepted by the divide 
crossed, when it turns abruptly to the south, 
which general direction it follows to the sea. 

To the left, rising from the very backbone 
of the Wind River range, near its northern 
extremity and about midway between Union and 
Fremont peaks, was yet another lofty eminence, 
gray, scarred and stern-visaged, which frowned 
down upon the little cavalcade like some ill- 
natured giant upon insects crawling at his feet. 
Determining that this was the most favorable 
approach obtainable, the Major decided to delay 
movements in the direction of Fort Washakie 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 199 

and made the attack. Following up the Green 
from the bend toward the south, past two beau- 
tiful lakes formed by terminal moraine obstruc- 
tions and which, viewed from the surrounding 
heights, appeared Cyclopean emeralds resting 
in a mighty trough. On past these and to the 
mouth of a forbidding canon, whose walls rose 
perpendicularly until their apparent converg- 
ency rendered visible but a narrow ribbon of 
the pale blue sky overhead, its walls striated 
and polished in places like a mirror from glacial 
action, a turn was made to the east, and, climb- 
ing upward to the limit of grass and timber, 
camped for the night. Early the following 
morning the surest-footed mule in the herd was 
packed with food, blankets and the requisites 
of the trip, and, followed by the entire party 
save the cook, commenced the mighty climb. 

Forward and backward, upward and on- 
ward, toiled the little band of men and mule 
to a projecting point far above from which a 
stone might be hurled back into the camp 
departed from more than three hours previous. 
From here the only practical footing was along 
a northerly slope and across a talus heap or 
slide of finely comminuted rock, the toe of which 
rested upon the brink of a precipitous and un- 
fathomable chasm. Across this (as in the case 
of Evans and the writer the year previous) the 
party stole cautiously forward and backward, 
working a narrow shelf with the feet in the 
creeping, crawling mass that the mule might 



200 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

have a pathway. Then blindfolding him, he was 
started upon the perilous trip, with one packer 
in the lead and the other following. Midway, 
his keen instinct discovered a movement of the 
earth beneath him. He stopped short, crouched 
and trembled for an instant, then, with a snort 
of terror, whirled to retrace his steps. The turn 
was never completed. Half way around, he 
toppled backward and shot like a rotating rocket 
down the steep incline and over the cliff. 

By a circuitous route the packers reached a 
point where a view could be obtained for some 
distance below. There, upon a projecting shelf, 
was scattered portions of the pack, mingled 
with bloody fragments of the beast, whose 
greater weight carried him on downward into 
depths so apparently interminable as to suggest 
the possibility that he may not even yet have 
reached the bottom. Gathering such of the 
cargo as could be reached, it was distributed 
amongst the members of the party, who, carry- 
ing it upon their backs, resumed the journey. 

Late in the afternoon the borders were 
entered of a great field of snow, which rested 
practically upon the summit. Each of the party 
halted and looked carefully and curiously at 
the great sheet spread before them. Then, with 
a common impulse, each rubbed his eyes care- 
fully, worked the lids a few times in quick suc- 
cession to further clear the lenses and adjust 
the focus, and looked again, hesitating to raise 
the question, until, finally, Mac, the packer, 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 201 

exclaimed: "Say, does that snow look white to 
you fellers?" And it did not; for it was a 
striking occurrence of those peculiar deposits 
of red and pink snow so often found at great 
elevations, particularly in the Alps, and due 
to the presence of minute animal or vegetable 
forms. Moving forward across the glacier (for 
it was in fact the remnant of such, which in 
earlier ages had reached far down into the valley, 
but which had now receded to this point), 
numerous crevasses were met, none more than 
two feet across at the top, but of depths of one 
hundred feet and more. Another feature of this 
great perpetual field of snow and ice was that 
of the surface being literally strewn with dead 
grasshoppers, which, undoubtedly, in migrating 
from the valley of the Wind river to that of the 
Green, or the reverse, had chilled and settled 
there. 

Far out on the silvery surface two huge 
"silver tip" bears were seated a hundred yards 
or so apart, each busily engaged in raking these 
grasshoppers into little heaps with his claws 
and then devouring them. The course led 
midway between the banqueters, and, when 
opposite, each rested from his labors for a time, 
contemplated the intruders carefully, sniffed the 
air, licked their chops, and resumed operations, 
apparently concluding that they preferred grass- 
hoppers. 

Upon a little cone-shaped mass, the highest 
of all points in the great table-topped area which 



202 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

formed the summit, the desired observations 
were made, which completed, a return was at 
once engaged in. The bears had finished their 
meal and ambling leisurely along a hundred 
or two yards in advance, finally disappeared 
in the forest below. 

The eminence occupied showed an elevation 
of 13,215 feet, or but 575 feet less than that 
of Fremont's peak. 

In Irving' s "Adventures of Captain Bonne- 
ville" a graphic description is given of Bonne- 
ville and party's attempt at crossing this Wind 
River range from the head of a Popo Agie" 
on the east, with a view to reaching their camp 
(Fort Bonneville) in the upper portion of Green 
River basin by a shorter route, and when upon 
the summit they saw some distance to the north 
of them a formidable and lofty peak, which they 
visited and made the ascent of. Without inves- 
tigation it would appear that this was what is 
now known as Fremont's peak, but such could 
not have been the case, as it is at least forty 
miles in a straight line along the summit of 
the range from even the most northerly fork 
of the Popo Agie. However, Irving says: "It 
is to be regretted that Captain Bonneville had 
no instruments with him with which to ascer- 
tain the elevation of this peak. He gives it as 
his opinion that it is the loftiest point of the 
North American continent, but of this we have 
no proof. It is certain that the Rocky mountains 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 203 

are of an altitude vastly superior to what was 
formerly supposed. We rather incline to the 
opinion that the highest peak is further to the 
northward and is the same measured by Mr. 
Thompson, surveyor to the Northwest Com- 
pany, who by the joint means of the barometer 
and trigonometric measurement, ascertained 
it to be twenty-five thousand feet above the level 
of the sea, an elevation only inferior to that of 
the Himalayas." 

How frightfully out of adjustment Mr. 
Thompson's instruments must have been. 

Descending into the basin and following 
down the Green and over the site of old Fort 
Bonneville, where some evidences of its existence 
still remained, a deflection was made to the east, 
keeping well under the lee of this magnificent 
section of the continental vertebras, whose 
granite nucleus rises barren, unclothed and 
majestic to heights of from 2,000 to 3,000 feet 
above timber line and higher still above the up- 
turned edges of the later geological generations 
which rest upon its flanks. 

Skirting the shore of that pearl of waters, 
Fremont's lake, for a distance of some ten miles, 
thence southeasterly toward and over the 
"Lander Cut-off" pass, down the Atlantic slope 
through the old and nearly abandoned mining 
camps of South Pass City, Atlantic City, Camp 
Stambaugh, and Miners' Delight, when turn- 
ing north and hugging closely the eastern flank 



204 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

of the range for a distance of thirty or forty- 
miles, we reach the summit of a high divide 
between two lateral drains, from whence far 
away down in the valley the eye caught the 
bright flutter of the stars and stripes, while 
to the ear was borne the faint, melodious notes 
of the bugle call at Camp Brown, later named 
Fort Washakie. 



CHAPTEK XL 

The old time military post of the frontier 
was a feature worthy of mention. It was to 
the nomad of the boundless waste of mountain 
and plain what London, Paris or New York 
are to-day to the most rural life which sur- 
rounds them, a point where the prospector, 
freighter, hunter and trapper, red and white, 
met as though by common consent, free from 
the restrictions of class, and yet more free from 
moral restraint, and drank and gambled and 
raced horses and fought, and later lay in the 
guard house and pondered with dim recollection 
over the brief season they had enjoyed in this 
center of extreme civilization and convenience, 
while the post trader counted the cash they had 
so recently possessed and credited it to his own 
account. Of these features Camp Brown en- 
joyed a fair degree. 

Across the parade ground, past the quarters 
of the commandant, Major Upham, filed the 
pack train and its followers, then down the 
bluff and into camp on a short stretch of bottom 
land that bordered the stream. And here it 
was now learned that an uprising of the Ban- 
nock tribe of Indians was in progress in and 
about the Yellowstone National park and that 
all the military available, including such force 



206 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

as could be spared from Camp Brown, was en- 
gaged in suppressing it. 

Apout the post were encamped some three 
thousand Shoshones and Arapahoes, many of 
the former being enlisted in the service of the 
Government in quelling the Bannock disturb- 
ance. They received the pay and rations of 
regular soldiers, guided their own movements 
in the raids which they made, and were per- 
mitted to retain such plunder captured as was 
the property of the enemy. 

The night was always employed as the time 
of departure and return of the raiders, and 
this, with the blazing camp fires of three thous- 
and Indians within the radius of a mile, with 
scouts arriving at the post bringing information 
of the near approach of the Bannocks, and with 
the entry of a band of victorious Shoshones 
making merry with their spoils, the night was 
indeed "filled with music" and Camp Brown 
a faithful presentation of the typical frontier 
post. 

It was early in the morning of the second 
day when the packers, George and Mac, after 
attending their stock quartered at the quarter- 
master's corral, returned hastily with the in- 
formation that they had found there amongst 
the mules of the survey one named "Lucy," 
brought in during the night by a band of Sho- 
shones and having been captured from the Ban- 
nocks. 



EEMINTSCENT RAMBLINGS. 207 

The mule Lucy was an iron gray, well 
known not only to the packers, but to the 
balance of the party, as belonging to the division 
which had accompanied our own from Ham's 
Fork up the Green river to the point where the 
separation occurred near its head. Further, to 
remove all question, the mule bore upon its left 
shoulder the brand of the survey, U. S. G. S. 
Incidentally, much other plunder, together with 
several Bannock prisoners, had accompanied the 
mule and was being held in an improvised guard 
house (a wall tent) but a short distance away. 
Approaching the guards, two Shoshone Indians, 
who, each with a rifle in his folded arms, paced 
with stealthy Indian tread, backward and 
forward, one in front, the other in the rear of 
the tent. Entering, there was met stalking 
about the interior, a stately Bannock brave, 
drawn about whose shoulders and falling to the 
floor in graceful folds, was a large red and 
white table cloth. Stopping short and half 
turning, he drew his gaudy mantle about him 
closely and assumed the majestic attitude of a 
toga-wrapped Boman. There was something 
strangely familiar as well as ludicrous in the ap- 
pearance presented by the improvised mantle, 
for it was of the identical pattern and cut from 
the same piece as that from which we had eaten 
our breakfast. In outfitting at Cheyenne each 
division had been supplied with this article cut 
from the same bolt. Upon the ground lay 
several other Bannocks, while in one corner was 

14 



208 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

heaped a pile of blankets upon which rested 
two guns. Each of these articles was identified 
as the property of some member of the same 
division to which the mule belonged, and there 
was no longer any question as to the experience 
they had met with, other than the present con- 
dition of the members themselves. 

Later in the season it developed that this 
division encamped one night on the edge of a 
forest which bordered a mountain park, wherein 
the pack animals were grazing, and while 
grouped about the camp fire heard suddenly 
the rattle of the bell upon the bell mare, followed 
by a general stampede of the herd; then the 
sharp crack of a half dozen rifles from out the 
darkness followed, scattering the fire and ashes 
in their faces, while one of the packers made a 
quick grab at his hip, too late, however, to 
catch a rifle ball which grazed the skin. Instantly 
each member of the party tumbled backward 
out of the bright light of the camp fire into the 
friendly shadows of the forest and took to his 
heels, each for himself and selecting his own 
route. 

So widely did their paths diverge that the 
campaign was nearly ended ere a reunion fully 
occurred. A few found their way to still 
another division of the survey in the vicinity 
of Fire Hole basin, while others wandered on, 
finally reaching the old town of Helena in 
Montana, the entire party, during their pil- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 209 

grimage, subsisting mainly upon the fruits of 
the forest. . 

Eleven days in the camp established near 
the Post, and with packs replenished, the time 
had now come to again occupy the wilds, and 
with an escort of Shoshone Indians, together 
with an interpreter named Charles Blackburn, 
furnished by Major Upham, the division set 
forth in a northwesterly direction along the 
Wind river toward its head, then over the 
mountains and into the outskirts of the wily 
Bannocks' operations. 

The Shoshones who accompanied were pro- 
visioned by the post, and not wishing to be 
hampered with the care of pack animals, each 
packed his rations upon the animal he rode. 
Tiring of this and the additional load it im- 
posed upon their saddle ponies, they, after a few 
days' march, sought to devour it as rapidly as 
possible. This processs proving too slow, they 
threw the balance away. Then, until hunger 
discouraged further attempt, hung about the 
camp of the survey, picking up the scraps and 
waiting each meal time for an invitation which 
never came. Discouraged in this, two of them 
detoured from the line of march and that night 
appeared at camp with the sides of two elk. 
Late into the night they frolicked about the 
camp fire, dancing, singing, pow-wowing^ 
toasting the ribs of the elk, supported by green 
sticks before the fire, until the dormancy of 



210 REMINISCENT KAMBEINGS. 

gluttony overcame them and they slept. Alter- 
nating the days, they fasted and feasted in 
regular order through the entire campaign. 
During the day's march they rode in no regular 
order. Many of them would disappear entirely, 
to reappear only when camp was made for the 
night. Whether at any time they were in front, 
in the rear, to the right or to the left, was 
never known, but from the high points reached 
as one looked backward, the general course 
traveled was found to be accurately marked by 
faint ascending columns of smoke, arising from 
fires which they had started upon the most 
prominent points along the line. That it was 
the work of our Indian escort there was little 
question, though the act or its purpose was never 
detected. 

It was difficult to realize that these simple, 
playful, seemingly improvident and childlike 
beings were really warriors whose defense was 
worthy of consideration, but the Shoshone of 
that day required no supplementary testimony 
in this behalf. The silent graves of innu- 
merable foes who had sought to trespass upon his 
possessions of time immemorial bore mute evi- 
dence that he had and would fight. And why 
should he be other than simple and playful ? For 
he was possessed of a happiness that was un- 
affected and true. And why be provident to 
the end of accumulation for which he had no 
rational need and the cares of which he could 
not dispel? His wants were simple, few and 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 211 

easily supplied. His intelligence was wholly 
adapted to the maintenance of an unostenta- 
tious and unchanging style of existence. He 
neither packed about or hoarded up any evidence 
of an indebtedness to him on the part of his 
fellow being which he had never earned, nor 
did he destroy any portion of his privilege of 
consumption and enrich an idle, cunning and 
presuming master through contribution of a 
portion of his production. He was never a 
sufferer from over-production, for when his 
needs were supplied his labors ceased. To be 
sure he hung about our camp at mealtime, for 
his palate had already been tickled by the highly 
spiced and unnatural foods we ate, and with 
the whiskey which he hoped we might possess. 
He was also an inveterate gambler, and played 
draw poker to the end that he ofttimes wore no 
blanket and walked ; yet there remains no ques- 
tion of whom he learned the game or from 
whom he obtained the cards. As together we 
wandered through the forest our more advanced 
minds entered into no successful competition 
with him in detecting and interpreting the warn- 
ings of nature as to our actual needs and welfare. 
When later, fortified with barometers, etc., we 
disregarded the evidence and advice he had 
offered and remained in Buffalo Fork basin but 
a few days past the time he had advised for 
our departure, it was to battle against and camp 
in iive feet of snow upon the range in making 
our escape. Still, how little advanced he seemed 



212 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

in comparison with ourselves ! Though he 
worshipped an infinite power (differing a little 
perhaps in the form of worship, but evidently 
the same as our own, for there certainly can be 
but one) and of which he possessed as intimate 
a knowledge as we! Again, his knowledge of 
himself seemed fairly perfect. His hair was 
abundant, his teeth contained no gold filling, 
nor were there any cavities to fill. He wore 
no lenses of glass before his eyes wherewith to 
augment his vision, for it was perfect. He 
packed no supply of drugs, Latin phrased pre- 
scriptions or medicines of any kind, yet he 
remained in perfect health, while we were at 
times ill. Still, it was plain that he was of no 
earthly account; a miserable vagabond stum- 
bling about in the dense jungle of ignorance, 
accumulating nothing he did not need and inter- 
fering with those who did; taking no interest 
whatever in the acquirement of that which 
makes the individual great through fear and 
dependency on the part of his fellow man. He 
had not even learned to destroy a hundred 
monarchs of the forest wherewith to construct 
for himself a vast, palatial wigwam containing 
rooms for which he had no use and which re- 
quired the time and labor belonging to others 
to care for, and the destruction of hundreds of 
other monarchs of the forest to warm. It had 
never occurred to the sodden intellect of this 
ambitionless being to gain a personal ownership 
of a portion of the lands of his tribe, or, better 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 213 

still, the whole, if possible, or even to possess 
himself of the exclusive privilege to hunt or 
fish, or tan the pelts of wild animals, or manu- 
facture the bows and arrows of his tribe, and 
thus derive a greater advantage through the 
needs of others. 

But who wishes to become an Indian ? No 
one, of course. 

Still lower in the scale of animal life, the 
bee and the ant are unquestionably amongst the 
most striking examples of industry, thrift, 
order and success, handicapped as they are 
through their evident principles of collectivism. 
Yet who wishes to become a bee or an ant ? And 
we must admit that for the simple purpose of 
adopting many of their teachings of incalcu- 
lable value to mankind, it is hardly necessary 
that we should. 

And so, disgusted with his utter lack of 
enterprise or so-called civilization, and dis- 
couraged at any attempt to cultivate it, we 
passed on and resumed our labors as the 
advance guard of individual accumulation and 
pointed out as accurately as possible the 
precious metal-bearing areas, together with the 
most promising deposits of coal and iron, where- 
by they might be gathered up as quickly and 
inexpensively as possible and forever placed 
within the absolute possession and sacred guard- 
ianship of some philanthropic individual or 
combine, and generations yet unborn be relieved 



214 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



of any worry or distress incident to any interest 
whatever in them. 

Reaching "Bull Lake" fork of the Wind 
river, a camp was established upon its shores 

while making ob- 
servations from a 
prominent point 
high up in the 
range to the west. 
The lake was 
o r m e d through 
the destruction of 
a wide area of the 
recent sedimentary 
formation through 
which the stream 
flowed and the cre- 
ation of a terminal 
moraine below. 

The name "Bull 
Lake" had been 
given it by the In- 
dians from the fact 
that atcertain 
times low moan- 
ings or bellowing 
sounds emanated 
apparently from 
its bosom, while 
the legend ran that 
w,y :> far away in the 

V 




'Rod Blanket." 



EEMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 215 

dim distant past of the race a Shoshone brave 
had wounded a buffalo bull who, in his frenzy, 
had chased him into the lake, where both were 
drowned. Investigation proved, however, that 
the wind blowing from a certain quarter and 
entering the holes and hollows which nature 
carved in the cliffs of soft rock which fringed its 
shores, was alone responsible for the uncanny 
sounds. 

Amongst the Indian escort was one of strik- 
ing peculiarities called "Red Blanket/' from the 
fact that he wore girded about his loins a red 
blanket which fell in double folds about the 
upper portions of his legs, forming a kilt, the 
upper or outer fold of which, when necessary, 
he raised and wrapped about his shoulders for 
additional protection from the weather. 

Far up on the headwaters of the fork, alone 
with the Indian, we halted to rest in the shelter 
of a dense thicket by the stream. Scarce were 
we seated, when an elk bugled in the forest a 
short distance above. The Indian, in a playful 
mood, opened the breech of the government car- 
bine which he carried, and placing the stock 
upon the ground between his mocasined feet, 
blew into the muzzle, reproducing the melody 
of the elk so exact as to be startling. Promptly 
the elk answered and an interchange of calls 
followed, the elk meantime approaching closer 
and closer, until at last, peering through the 
dense thicket, he could be seen picking his way 
with cautious and uncertain tread through the 



216 REMINISCENT RAMBLISTGS. 

timber and down the mountain side directly 
toward us. No longer able to withstand the 
cowardly impulse, the writer raised his rifle to 
fire, when "Red Blanket/' reaching across, 
placed his hand upon the barrel of the gun, and 
deflecting it gently, said with a kindly implor- 
ing glance and shake of his head, "No shoot em 
elk; no want em; got heap meat now. Sabe?" 
What a teaching along the line of material econ- 
omy and the higher principles of humanity was 
here presented through the act of this uncultured 
child of the forest. And what a reflection upon 
the long-haired, cowardly, improvident white 
renegade who, hidden in the "breaks" of some 
dry arroya, wantonly slaughtered a nearby herd 
of buffalo, simply to see them fall and secure the 
hide. 

Forty miles further to the northwest the 
range was crossed through Union Pass. The 
pass was broad and filled with heavy timber. It 
was near the middle of the afternoon of an early 
autumn day, bright shafts of sunlight streamed 
downward through innumerable openings in the 
rich foliage of the primeval forest, while the 
stilly stillness of undisturbed nature pervaded 
all. The Major rode in the lead, as was his cus- 
tom, the writer following closely, while the In- 
dians occupied a position some distance in the 
rear of the train. It was the hour of inarch in 
which as a rule the morning's stock of conversa- 
tion material was well exhausted, and all had 



EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 21 7 

relapsed into the dreamy meditation which ac- 
companies the last quarter of a lengthy march 
and precedes the establishment of camp. 

The Major alone, as was his custom at times, 
continued a line of conversation as he rode slowly 
forward, never turning his head, and so subdued 
in tone that only a small percentage of his words 
penetrated the writer's drowsy understanding; 
while guided by the modulations of his voice, he 
interpolated with amazing correctness, born of 
long experience, such exclamations of interest as, 
"Well, well!" "A ha!" "Indeed!" etc., all of 
which required less effort and disturbance of 
dreams on his part than an attempt at clearer un- 
derstanding through a request for a repetition of 
each statement, and as experience had proven, 
was more satisfactory to the Major. 

Suddenly the Major brought his mule to a 
halt, and nervously clutched the Ballard rifle, 
scrambled out of the saddle and crouched at the 
foot of a. huge pine. ~No form of game of any 
kind could be seen, but his movements indicated 
it was a bear ; and whereas the Major was pos- 
sessed of certain manners and movements which 
accompanied the discovery of each kind of ani- 
mal, his bear movements were less liable to be 
misunderstood than any. Discharging his rifle, 
he climbed hurriedly back into the saddle, while 
through the thick timber, at a distance of a hun- 
dred yards or less, a monster form was seen to 
rise upon its hind legs to a towering height, 
while angry snarls rent the stillness of the forest. 



218 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

It was a huge bear of the grizzly type. For a 
moment he stalked about upon his hind feet in 
search of the enemy, all the while pouring forth 
a torrent of the most blasphemous bear language, 
when finally discovering nothing, he dropped 
upon all fours, and starting at right angles to 
our pathway, crossed a small ridge and disap- 
peared from view. Advancing to the point 
where he had been engaged, there lay beside the 
trail the carcass of a huge bull elk, so recently 
killed that the flesh was still warm. Bear were 
so common in all this country at this time, that 
under ordinary circumstances their meeting cre- 
ated but little excitement, but this fellow was of 
such Herculean proportions as to excite the old- 
est hunter. Unable to restrain an insane ambi- 
tion for the conquest of so exceptional a beast, 
the writer rode hurriedly, yet cautiously to the 
summit of the ridge in pursuit, while the intense 
eagerness which possessed him had mixed with 
it a trace of fear that possibly he might be found. 
Sitting astride the mule on the brow of the 
ridge, sharp watch was kept of the direction in 
which he had disappeared, then listened intently, 
but no sight or sound of the ponderous old pa- 
triarch presented itself for a time, when of a 
sudden a loud crash accompanied by a violent 
commotion of the underbrush in the bed of the 
drain below, and the form of a monstrous bear 
emerged and started to climb the opposite slope. 
The mule snorted his expressions of fear and dis- 
approval, worked his long ears nervously, gave a 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 219 

few quick glances to the right and left, then be- 
hind him to see that the field was open for re- 
treat, and trembled slightly beneath the writer, 
while he trembled violently above the nmle, then 
raised the rifle and fired quickly at the immense 
target. A snarl of pain and anger followed the 
report of the gun, as glancing backward over his 
shoulder he caught sight of his enemy, and 
wheeling about, plunged headlong into the brush 
on a return trip of annihilation. Instantly upon 
his appearance from the thicket a second shot 
was sent in search of him, as the mule turned 
and stampeded wildly back down the face of the 
ridge, which he had ascended, circled about a 
short distance, then of his own accord, stopped 
and faced about in the direction of his starting 
point. Hardly had he done so, when the bear 
reached the summit of the ridge, where a third 
shot greeted him. The mule cavorted about in 
a small circle, while the bear tore madly down 
the slope, rushing blindly into a large spruce 
which intercepted his pathway. Crazed by his 
wounds and maddened at the interference, he 
reared upon his hind legs, and with his huge 
forepaws, beat the trunk of the tree high up, 
tearing away the green bark in great sheets and 
filling the air with its fragments. Changing 
from this form of attack at intervals he hugged 
the trunk with desperation, biting savagely at 
the form within his embrace. Taking advan- 
tage of his distraction, a fourth shot was dis- 
charged, the ball striking him in the ear and en- 



220 REMINISCENT RAMBUNGS. 

tering the brain. Slowly he sank upon his 
haunches, the great claws cutting deep grooves 
as he clung with a dying and hopeless determi- 
nation to the trunk of the tree, then with his 
head thrown back in pathetic despair the mas- 
sive paws relaxed their hold, while the brave and 
noble brute fell backward upon the tufted carpet 
of his forest home, a lifeless mass. It was in- 
deed a most pathetic exhibition of the dethrone- 
ment of superb physical power, and the conquer- 
ing only through death of a courage that knew 
no fear. 

The Indians, packers and other members of 
the party, hearing the firing, had now reached 
the spot, and were grouped about the huge and 
prostrate mass, carefully investigating and joint- 
ly admiring the whole. 

He had quite acquired his winter coat, the 
fur averaging eight inches in depth. One ear 
was torn off close to his head, probably the result 
of a difference of opinion arising between him- 
self and a worthy rival. In repeated lifting of 
his carcass, through the joint effort of six men, 
it was estimated that his weight was not far from 
eleven hundred pounds. 

The Indians, in removing the hide, found a 
ball from the Ballard rifle, which acquitted the 
Major gracefully. Then there was found three 
of the four fired from the writer's Spencer. Nor 
was this all, for the old fellow was a veritable 
lead mine. Against his right shoulder was 
found another, flattened to about the dimensions 



EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 221 

of a silver dollar, while in the muscles of his 
neck was still another, also much battered, each 
of the two last mentioned wounds having long 
since healed. 

Stretching the green hide and pinning it to 
the ground, it was found to measure over seven 
feet square. Dressing with what little salt 
could be spared for its preservation, Red Blan- 
ket was the following morning dispatched with 
the skin to a cow camp some sixty miles distant 
on Wind River, with instructions for it to be 
taken to the post upon their first visit, and de- 
livered to the squaws to tan. 

We had journeyed far on down the Gros 
Ventre and up a tributary and into the moun- 
tains to the north, when Red Blanket, several 
days later, overtook the party, having taken up 
the trail at the point of his separation and fol- 
lowed it unerringly into camp. 

For weeks the outfit stole stealthily forward 
through wild and beautiful forest and park, over 
precipitous mountains, down into weird and 
shadowed glens, then along the banks of limpid, 
murmuring and trout laden streams, and the 
shores of mirror like lakelets, well up into the 
land of the hostile Bannock. Circling about 
over a great area in the south of the Yellowstone 
National Park, and finally wandering back upon 
the head waters of Buffalo Fork to engage in the 
completion of some unfinished work in this 
locality. For days past the Indians had at in- 



222 REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 

tervals looked wisely into the heavens, then 
scanned the horizon closely, and with accompa- 
nying gesticulations muttered their fear of a 
great storm. Each time the barometers were 
consulted carefully, and firmness added to the 
belief that not only was there little danger of a 
serious storm, but that the Indians' motive was 
more that of a return to the butterfly life of the 
post, than a fear of the elements, either on his 
own account or that of others. 

Supper finished one night in a little aspen- 
bordered park by the stream, the smoking of 
pipes in comfort and a feeling of security about 
the blazing camp fire was being indulged in, 
when a rustle of the deciduous foliage near, ac- 
companied by a flutter of the flame, and a puff 
of smoke from the fire attracted the attention, 
and looking upward over the encircling peaks, 
great clouds were seen hurrying across the open- 
ing. Soon an unrestful sound, gradually deep- 
ening into a low moan, and then into a decisive 
and determined roar, came from the fastnesses 
of the forest-clad hills above; a moment later 
the storm, furious and blinding, burst relent- 
lessly upon the camp. All night long, and until 
late on the afternoon of the following day, the 
storm raged, when at its close the snow lay waist 
deep in the little park, with well-known addi- 
tional depths in the mountain passes above. 

The stock were now subsisting from the 
leaves of the quaking aspen, which were felled 
for that purpose. No escape, save through 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 223 " 

greater depths of snow than that which immedi- 
ately surrounded was possible, unless it were to 
follow down the drainage of the Snake, and west- 
ward into Idaho. And this led far away from 
the objective point, and out into a wide waste 
that involved a lengthy wandering. All other 
routes led over a mountain range. Above the 
camp and to the eastward was a pass known as 
"To-owo-tee." It was by far the nearest, and 
as the Indians believed, much the most likely to 
permit of passage. 

Early on the morning of the second day fol- 
lowing the storm the hungry and weakened ani- 
mals were saddled and packed, and the battle 
was on with the beautiful. Deeper and deeper 
became the snow as the little band wallowed and 
struggled upward toward the summit. 

Late in the afternoon, and high up on the 
pass appeared a bunch of quaking aspens at the 
sight of which the hungry mules brayed in cho- 
rus, and camp was made for the night in five 
feet of snow. At noon of the following day the 
summit was reached, and with the grade changed 
to advantage, a rapid descent was made into 
shallower depths, and finally out upon an out- 
lying spur of the range, and well down in the 
valley of the upper Wind River where the grass 
was plentiful and the ground bare. 

Far away down this stream, where "Craw 
Heart Butte" towers high above its eastern 
banks, camp was established one night in a log 
cabin owned by Washakie, Chief of the Sho- 

15 



224 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

shones, and employed by him as a headquarters 
upon hunting expeditions. 

This cabin in later years became additionally 
historic through becoming the final retreat while 
hard pressed of a certain renegade Shoshone 
chief, where, though surrounded by soldiers and 
Indians, he made so determined a defense that 
finally a howitzer was brought into action, his 
stronghold shelled, the Indian killed, and the 
old cabin partially destroyed. 

Camp was hardly established here, when the 
storm, seemingly enraged at the escape from 
Buffalo Fork, followed and again burst in fury. 

Crow Heart Butte has for generations been 
a historical landmark, and was the last topo- 
graphical station to be occupied. This butte 
rises to a height of a thousand feet above the 
level of the valley in which it is situated, and is 
composed of alternating layers of clays and sand- 
stones. It is the most prominent landmark in 
all that section, and derives its name from the 
interesting fact that in time past, during an un- 
pleasantness which at all times existed between 
the Shoshones and their neighbors, the Crows, a 
battle was fought a short distance to the east. 
The Shoshones were victorious, and a zealous 
and triumphant Shoshone brave, cutting out the 
heart of a dead Crow, placed it upon the point of 
a lodge pole, and ascending the butte, erected the 
pole upon its summit, where it was allowed to 
remain long afterward as a warning to the foe. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 225 

Near the camp which followed this, down at 
the junction of Torrey's Fork with the Wind 
Biver, was camped that night a prospector of the 
old school. The stranger came over the bluffs 
to the east, and from the direction of the Owl 
Creek range of mountains. He was a short, 
solidly built man with full bushy beard, and a 
heavy shock of hair, each grizzled to about the 
extent of a middle-aged badger, and generously 
sheltered by an expansive brim of a much bat- 
tered and weather-beaten sombrero. 

Upon each hip was mounted an enormous 
Colt's navy of somewhat ancient model. In a 
scabbard at his saddle bow on the right was 
sheathed a huge hunting knife, while resting 
behind the pommel and balanced across his lap 
was an old Springfield army rifle. The whole, 
mounted on a scrubby, sleeping-looking "Pinto" 
pony of Indian breed, and followed closely by a 
little square built Texas pack mule, who bore 
upon his back the household supplies and tools 
of a typical prospector. 

The little outfit ambled down the bank and 
into the creek bottom but a few rods below, and 
were soon unsaddled and encamped. While en- 
gaged in preparing his supper, the writer strolled 
over to the camp and attempted to engage him in 
conversation, but failed. He was dignified, si- 
lent, and even morose. 

I wanted to tell him who we were, and im- 
press him with a knowledge of the social and 
scientific surroundings into which he had un- 



226 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

consciously drifted, but he didn't seem to care, 
or place any value on it whatever. Then inter- 
est changed to an observance of the man and his 
methods. 

The camp equipment of the Hayden expedi- 
tions, and particularly that of the kitchen de- 
partment, had long been regarded as a wonder. 
The methods of the entire world along this line 
had been ransacked and culled of their valuable 
features. In addition, all this had been altered 
and added to by the most experienced and ingen- 
ious minds, until it seemed that nothing re- 
mained possible to do in attaining perfection, 
and that the system presented itself without fear 
of competition as the acme of compactness, de- 
sirability and simplicity. One could imagine 
the stupefying effect through the sudden de- 
thronement of a belief so deep-seated, had they 
watched the system of this, old prospector unfold 
itself. 

His little miniature camp fire, which could 
be easily covered with the hat he wore, was now 
started, and his operations of preparing the 
evening meal well under way. 

In the edge of the fire was a tomato can 
filled with water being heated. Nearby upon 
the ground was a small frying pan, a little ten- 
pound lard bucket, and a bit of soiled and heavy 
canvas about two feet square. 

Taking a handful of coffee, he threw it into 
a small leathern bag about the size of a tobacco 
sack ; this he pounded between two stones until 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 227 

the kernels were crushed. Cutting a few slices 
of bacon, he threw them into the frying pan and 
placed it on the fire; while this was cooking he 
mixed a batter of flour and baking powder in 
the lard bucket with a little wooden paddle he 
had whittled. The bacon fried, he tossed out 
the slices one by one upon the piece of canvas 
with the point of the big hunting knife, then 
poured the batter into the pan with the bacon 
grease, and replaced it on the fire. When the 
lower side of the flap- jack was done he loosened 
it from the pan with his knife, and seizing the 
pan by the handle, tossed the cake high in the 
air, and caught it in the pan bottom upward; 
while this side was browning, the water in the 
tomato can reached the boiling point, when he 
dumped the little sack of coffee therein, and 
already the evening meal was fully prepared. 

Seating himself upon the ground beside the 
canvas he feasted alternately from a slice of 
bacon held in one hand and a fragment torn from 
the huge flap- jack in the other, interspersing the 
process at frequent intervals with long draughts 
of coffee from the tomato can in which it was 
boiled, finally finishing with a dessert of dried 
fruit, previously prepared and stored in a glass 
pickle jar. Supper ended, he rinsed the coffee 
can, dashed a little cold water in the heated 
frying pan, leaving the lard bucket until the 
following meal, when the batter having dried, 
the scales were easily removed and all dish- 
washing done. ~No fork, spoon, cup, plate or 



228 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

cooking utensil of any form other than those 
mentioned, found the slightest service to per- 
form in either his kitchen or dining-room, while 
from the man's unsocial and inhospitable man- 
ner, the writer little dreamed that a year later 
in a camp many hundreds of miles removed, he 
would be invited, even forced at the muzzle of 
one of those ancient but persuasive Colts to dine 
with him. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Reaching Camp Brown a few days later, the 
campaign was now ended so far as field work 
was concerned, yet a long weary march of nearly 
four hundred miles remained to reach Chey- 
enne, where the mules and paraphernalia must 
be returned for care and safe-keeping during the 
winter, to be again ready for service the succeed- 
ing summer. 

Of the scientific force, a greater number 
were regular attaches of the survey, and in 
haste to reach Washington and enter with as 
little delay as possible upon the duties of work- 
ing up the field notes of the past summer; 
though unconsciously on their part perhaps, 
somewhat possessed of, and influenced by a de- 
sire to seek a speedy relief from the crude life of 
mountain and plain, and again taste the luxu- 
ries of a higher civilization and its surround- 
ings. Hence the writer was detailed to conduct 
the outfit to Cheyenne, while they made the near- 
est point on the Union Pacific railway by army 
ambulance from Camp Brown. 

A few days rest of the mules while rearrang- 
ing the packs, when together with the packers 
and cook, we single-filed away from the fort, and 
off to the southward along the eastern flank of 
the Wind River Mountains, the mules swinging 



230 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGrS. 

onward with free and lengthy strides, at each of 
which they wagged their long ears in approval of 
their lightened loads, and the homeward course 
they were pursuing, camping at nightfall of the 
first day in the outskirts of Lander City, an old 
settlement on the Popo Agie. 

Lander was in its time a typical frontier city 
of those early days. Now not more than a half 
dozen of its crude edifices remained whose 
weather-beaten and dilapidated exteriors bore 
mute evidence of the fearful odds against which 
the town had contended in the struggle to main- 
tain its title as a city. Still what reputation the 
place may have lost in this direction, it had 
gained in others, for it was then known far and 
near as the most noted rendezvous of horse 
thieves, stage robbers, train robbers and hold- 
ups generally, in all that northern country, then 
so fruitful of such talent. 

But a few days previous a band who had 
robbed the camp at Caribou, and successfully 
held up a Union Pacific train, with its escort of 
regular soldiers, started northward for the Black 
Hills. Early en route they had encamped one 
night, when the party whose turn it was to cook 
conceived the idea of capturing the entire stock 
of plunder, and to this end poisoned the bread 
which he was baking. In his eagerness to make 
the attempt a success, he exercised so great gen- 
erosity in dealing out the poison that their stom- 
achs refused to harbor it. Capturing the mur- 
derous chef (who alone had remained unaf- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 231 

fected), they hastily discussed the case and de- 
cided to shoot him, then deliberating farther, 
they commuted the sentence to abandonment, 
after being stripped of all valuables and given a 
crippled horse. With this he was left to work 
out his own salvation in escaping from the posse 
which they knew then to be on their trail. In 
this condition he made his way to Lander, reach- 
ing there upon the same day as ourselves. 

The; country about Lander to the south and 
east was now infested with this class, to whom 
the fine, strong pack and saddle animals of the 
survey with their now limited defense, were 
most desirable. Foregoing the delights of an 
extended stay in the extremely democratic com- 
munity, a hurried march was made to the head- 
waters of the Sweetwater, then down its valley 
and along the old California trail to a point near 
Independence Rock. Now leaving the valley 
and turning due south, passing through that de- 
file known as Whiskey Gap, thence onward in 
practically a straight line, keeping so< far as 
possible away from all trails until noon of the 
sixth day, when suddenly from a line of bluffs 
appeared the track of the Union Pacific rail- 
way at a point a short distance west of Rawlins, 
then on along the railway east a distance of six- 
teen miles, completing the day's march at the 
station and government post of Fort Steele on 
the north fork of the Platte River, where at this 
time no blade of grass was visible for a radius 



232 KEMINISCENT RAMBLHSTGS. 

of many miles, while the public store was with- 
out a single pound of grain. 

The last rays of the setting sun were fast dis- 
appearing, as grouped about the store building, 
men and mules awaited some solution of the 
problem. There seemed nothing to do but march 
on into the night in search of grazing, which was 
well known to be impossible of obtaining in a 
less distance than twenty miles. 

A short distance away an officer was seen ap- 
proaching leisurely from the direction of the 
post. Drawing nearer he came directly to the 
writer and inquired, "Are you in charge of this 
stock, and are they government mules ?" Reply- 
ing in the affirmative. He asked, "Where will 
you feed them to-night V Replying that it was 
a matter as yet unsatisfactorily determined, he 
quietly and without further ceremony took a 
card from his pocket, and writing a brief note 
upon its back, presented it with the remark, 
"Perhaps this will help you out." 

The face of the card bore the name, Major 
Thomas T. Thornburg, Fourth U. S. Infantry. 
While upon the opposite side was written an or- 
der to the Quartermaster at the post to care for 
the mules until the following day. Then cor- 
dially extending the hospitality of his quarters, 
he passed on, each little thinking that we would 
later be indirectly associated in an affair so fatal 
to himself. 

Reaching Cheyenne, the outfit was given into 



BEMIlSriSCENT EAMBLINGS. 233 

custody for the winter, and the campaign was 
fully ended. 

Ever since the discovery of gold in the Black 
Hills of Dakota, and the commencement of the 
stampede in that direction, Cheyenne had been 
its most important outfitting point. From here 
the six-horse Concord coaches dashed away daily 
to the northward laden with the adventurous 
spirits in the search for gold, followed slowly 
by long lines of freight teams carrying forward 
the necessaries of life which they later must 
have, together with the luxuries they surely 
would have, in case of success, save perchance 
the wily Indians of the North got either them- 
selves or the goods which followed them en route. 

But why, now, this horde of fortune hunters 
returning in so great numbers ? Had the golden 
reefs and sands of the hills played out? ~No. 
But news of a richer field had found its way to 
them. Leadville had disclosed its treasure 
vault hidden away in what was now known as 
Fryer Hill, and thither from North, South, East 
and West, and every point of compass between, 
where a passable trail existed, streamed hun- 
dreds, thousands, and tens of thousands of be- 
ings, old and young, male and female, pressing 
tumultuously forward over rugged mountain 
and across the barren and desolate plain to reach 
this Mecca of glittering wealth. 

And now like Charlemagne in his grief and 
forebodings, as he watched the wild and resolute 



234 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

Norseman coasting along the shores of his land 
in their snake4ike galleys, and bethought him- 
self of the woes that were about to befall his 
countrymen, the writer stood beside the trail and 
gazed upon the motley throng, while hope sank 
to a fathomless depth as he realized the probable 
loss of those Leadville mining claims, in which 
it had so long been centered. 

Far away down in the Wet Mountain Val- 
ley, lying between the Wet Mountain and the 
Sangre de Christo ranges there had now been 
discovered a, still later field from which ore of 
fabulous richness was already being mined. 

Rounding up the saddle horse and pack mule, 
which had been wisely retained as a sort of safe- 
guard against railway and stage rates, in case 
of future necessity for travel, coupled with a 
shortage of funds, the writer a few days later 
passed southward over the Divide, driving the 
pack mule before, and headed for the "new find." 
It was not the springtime in which the prospec- 
tor usually starts on his hopeful mission, glad- 
dened and strengthened by the bright sunshine 
and the gentle exhilarating atmosphere of the re- 
gion, his ears filled with the joyful notes of 
birds, and his eyes feasting upon the fresh and 
growing foliage and flowers, but a gray chill No- 
vember day near the close of the month. Far 
away to the left stretched the plains like a cold, 
bleak, lifeless and sombre sea, its horizon inde- 
finable and lost in the murky storm-laden clouds 
above. To the right rose the "Base Range," the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 235 

summit of which was now white from a recent 
fall of snow. Pike's Peak, away to the south, 
had sought shelter for its upper or unclothed por- 
tion in vapory sheets which left only its forest- 
clad base exposed. Fitful gusts from the range 
tore through the jack pines, which bordered 
the trail and spitefully hurled the scattering 
snowflakes far away out of their vertical line of 
descent. 

On to the southward but a short distance be- 
low Colorado Springs a bridle path diverged 
from the wagon trail and led southwesterly 
across the lower portion of the range to the south 
of Pike's Peak, and in an almost direct course 
for the new camp of Silver Cliff, yet nearly a 
hundred miles distant. Following the dim trail, 
not many miles had been traversed, when the 
storm which for several days had threatened, 
commenced in that silent, steady, systematic 
manner which indicates its operation to be severe 
and of long duration. The wayside feed for the 
animals in this mountainous region was short 
and scarce, and when but an hour or two had 
passed, no sign of it was visible above the snow. 
Enveloped in gloom which also shrouded the 
hungry beasts as they saw their food disappear, 
we plodded onward ; the pack mule, as the noon 
hour approached, stopping at intervals at some 
point which appeared suitable for camping, then 
being rebuked, snatched a mouthful of foliage 
from some nearby shrub and hurried forward 
out of present reach. 



236 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Finally descending a slope from the ever- 
green timber above, into a little belt of quaking 
aspens which fringed it, we emerged suddenly 
into one of those meadowland parks so fre- 
quently met with in the Rocky Mountains. Out 
across the little park near its opposite border and 
close beside a limpid stream whose sinuous chan- 
nel bespoke its apparently numerous changes of 
decision as to which course to pursue, stood an 
old log cabin, and beyond, at the very edge of 
the park, a log stable. 

A thin column of smoke curled upward from 
a huge chimney, the stones of which were rough- 
ly laid in a mortar of mud, and which rested 
buttress-like against the cabin's easterly side, 
The storm was now raging fiercely, when rid- 
ing hurriedly across the park and dismounting 
at the door which opened to the west, a knock 
was sounded for admittance, while the pack 
mule scurried quickly around the corner and 
hugged closely to the south face of the structure, 
seeking shelter from the storm which was coming 
mercilessly out of the north. 

"No sound of footsteps from within had 
been heard, when the door was cautiously opened 
for a short distance, and around its edge (her 
form being sheltered behind it) appeared the 
kindly face of an old lady. Without waiting 
to listen to an explanation in full, she pulled the 
door wider open, keeping well behind it for 
shelter as she did so, and bade me enter. To- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 237 

gether with the storm I drifted in, while the sad- 
dle animal sought vainly to follow. 

The cabin was divided into two rooms. The 
one entered was warmed by a kitchen stove, 
upon which a teakettle sputtered and sang its 
cheery simmering song, undisturbed by the dis- 
cord of the tempest's howl without. Across the 
room and underneath its only window stood an 
old-fashioned dining table, with its leaves at- 
tached by hinges, to be opened for service or 
folded for compactness and convenience when 
not in use. Upon a rough board shelf attached 
to the wall stood an old-style clock with wooden 
frame, a picture painted upon the lower portion 
of its door, its dial marked with large Arabic 
figures in place of Roman numerals, and the 
hands pointing to the fact that it was now past 
noon. A huge Maltese cat left the chair in 
which it was nestled near the stove, and ap- 
proaching, arched its back, elevated its tail, and 
walking past rubbed its side familiarly against 
my leg, then turning suddenly about, repeated 
the operation with the other side; while a shep- 
herd dog, which had followed in after sounding 
the alarm of approach, and who now seemed con- 
vinced that the stranger was welcome, sought to 
entertain by alternately disturbing the cat's dem- 
onstrations and standing on his hind legs with 
his paws upon my breast. The old lady mean- 
while added several sticks of wood to the fire, 
opened the draughts to their fullest extent, and 
while the writer warmed his hands and ex- 



238 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

plained the intrusion she listened attentively, 
occasionally interpolating a sympathetic remark 
or a wise suggestion, until at last a scraping 
sound against the logs of the cabin, as the saddle 
and pack animals crowded each other in their 
choice of position, awakened us to the fact that 
the pleasant climatic change within did not 
extend to them. The kind-hearted and consid- 
erate hostess, also not unmindful of the discom- 
forts of the storm-beaten brutes, said, "Now, 
when you have warmed, I would put those ani- 
mals in the stable; it's empty, my son has gone 
down to the Arkansas valley and won't be back 
for a day or two yet. The only feed we have 
for them is that corn out there in the shock, and 
you will have to husk it, so get your hands good 
and warm." 

A half hour later the animals were snugly 
stabled and munching their nubbins of corn with 
that comfortable, cosy sound so familiar to one 
who as a boy has done chores and taken care of 
stock during the long winter on a New England 
farm. 

Returning to the cabin, one leaf of the table 
was found raised, the whole covered with a 
clean white cloth and spread bounteously with 
food. Entering, the old lady took the teapot 
from the stove, and pouring a cup of hot tea, 
remarked, "Now sit right down to the table 
while everything is warm. I hadn't noticed it 
was so late, being alone, and if you don't mind 
I'll eat a little something with you." Then ad- 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 239 

justing the little shawl she wore about her neck 
and shoulders, she seated herself at the opposite 
side of the table, while the cat stationed itself 
by her side and the dog by mine. 

As I ate, the mind was so filled with the 
memory of earlier days that there were soon 
three biscuits beside my plate, each partially de- 
voured, had lost my fork by leaving it in the 
plate of fried eggs, and only ceased putting 
sugar in my tea when the dog warningly laid 
one paw upon my knee. Then leaving my tea- 
spoon in the sugar bowl, and forgetting for the 
time that the present environment was but tran- 
sient, I lived again the simple life of boyhood 
on the old farm up in Washington county, New 
York, and over near the Vermont line. This 
was just such an old table as ours, and there 
being but three in the family my mother never 
moved it from the wall or raised but one leaf at 
mealtime, except when there was company. The 
old clock upon the shelf was exactly like ours, 
only the picture on the door differed and that 
but slightly. And now as it struck the hour of 
one, its tone was startling. It was the same 
agonizing sound that all through youth had dis- 
turbed my morning slumbers and hurried me off 
to school, and later, when night came, whose 
imperative tones had sent me back to bed again. 
The dog and cat chose their partners the same as 
they were doing here; and I dreamed on, that 
all this turmoil, strife and disappointment, all 
these weary paths so lately trod were but a 

16 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 241 

dream, and peace and joy possessed me as the 
false conviction forced itself upon my mind. 

Once more the dog laid his paw upon my 
knee, and, partially arousing, I gazed abstract- 
edly across the table at the woman as she poured 
a portion of the steaming tea from the cup into 
the saucer, raised it to her lips and turning her 
head from side to side gently blew the heated 
atmosphere from its surface ; then sipped it with 
long-drawn sips, pausing between each to further 
cool it by blowing again. The sight intensified 
my fancy, for during all my life at home I had 
each mealtime witnessed this identical style of 
tea drinking with never a detail omitted, and 
listened to the same long-drawn soothing sips, 
and nursed the joyous phantasma until again 
the dog, placing his paw impatiently upon my 
knee, awakened me more fully than before. 
The vision cleared, I heard the clink of the cup 
as it was replaced in the empty saucer, and at 
last looked understandingly into the genial face 
of the old lady as she smilingly and significantly 
remarked, "It makes one sleepy riding in the 
storm and cold of a day like this, doesn't it ?" 

In the course of the conversation which fol- 
lowed inquiry was made as to the length of her 
residence in the park, then gradually sought 
to pry into a knowledge of her birthplace and 
all subsequent dwelling places. For that hated 
malady, homesickness, still lingered, nurtured 
and revived through recent misfortunes, and a 
mania possessed me to search for those whose 



242 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 

early home had been near mine. Not demand- 
ing an extremely near-by residence, the same 
State now made them appear as old-time friends 
and slightly related. Noticing, no doubt, the 
determination to possess this information, the 
old lady said, "I was born and lived all my 
girlhood life back in York State." I was fully 
awake now, the heartbeats strengthened and 
quickened, the blood increased the velocity of its 
circulation, and leaning forward I eagerly in- 
quired, "What part of York State?" 

She replied, "I was born and raised on a 
farm in Washington county, near the town of 
Salem, and on the road leading from there to 
a neighboring town then called Union Village." 

Incapable of further restraint, I arose from 
the chair so suddenly that the dog, alarmed at 
the unlooked-for demonstration, jumped away 
to the middle of the room, and turning half 
way around to be in a position to continue the 
retreat or return in case the alarm proved 
false, looked inquiringly at each of us for some 
explanation ; the cat arched its back at the sud- 
den demonstration on the part of the dog ; while 
excitedly reaching across the table, my coat 
sleeve caught and upset the castor, as I grasped 
the hand of the old lady and assured her that I, 
too, was from Salem. 

And now, while she prepared a dinner for 
the dog and cat by gathering upon one plate 
all the scraps of food remaining from the meal, 
stacked the dishes in one pile, gathered up the 






REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 243 

table cloth, and opening the door, shook the 
crumbs out on the surface of the snow, then 
taking the dishpan from the wall where it was 
hanging beside the stove, poured a quantity of 
hot water into it from the teakettle, added a little 
soft soap from an old brown bowl on a shelf 
near by (the same old soft soap that at each 
springtime at home on the farm the writer had 
assisted in the manufacture of by packing water 
and pouring it into the barrel of wood ashes 
from which was leached the lye, and then boiled 
the lye and grease down into the real article, 
and scrubbed his chapped hands with it, and 
got it down deep into the cracks and while it 
smarted danced about on his toes and indulged 
in a few unorthodox remarks in an undertone) 
then while standing by the table, she washed the 
dishes and he wiped them, and later as we sat by 
the kitchen fire, we resurrected all the old resi- 
dents in Union Village and Salem, then toured 
the balance of Washington County and made all 
sorts of pleasing discoveries while the cat lay in 
the old lady's lap and purred its satisfaction at 
the good time we were all having, and the dog 
sat on his haunches close up beside the writer 
and gazed thoughtfully into the fire, maintain- 
ing a respectful silence and seeming to regret 
that he, too, was not born and raised in Wash- 
ington County away back there in York State. 
And thus we sat and talked of the old home, 
and of those who were personally known to each, 
though they were few, for time had removed 



244 EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

most of her acquaintances ere those of the writer 
were formed. Still her mind went back by as 
short a route, and seemed to dwell as lovingly in 
the memory of those scenes as his own. 

And now the old clock on the shelf struck 
three, the storm had abated, but a deep frown 
shadowed the landscape, and the storm clouds 
hung menacingly above. Declining her urgent 
appeal to remain for the night, she pointed out 
from the window where a wagon trail led out of 
the park and over the divide to other settlements 
on Beaver Creek. Then packing in wood and 
heaping the box behind the stove high up against 
the wall, I bade her a last farewell, and looking 
backwards as we left the park to enter the tim- 
ber, saw again at the cabin window the anxious 
face of the kind old lady, as she watched us wal- 
low onward and disappear in the forest beyond. 

We had found the wagon trail, denoted now 
only by an opening through the timber, and the 
smooth bench of snow where the grade followed 
upward along the mountain side. The wind 
with fitful gusts hurled at intervals upon man 
and beast small avalanches of snow from the 
heavily laden boughs of the pine and spruce 
trees. The animals struggled onward and up- 
ward, protesting at each step against the seem- 
ing foolishness of their master in abandoning the 
comfortable quarters obtained, to again subject 
ourselves to the discomforts and severity of 
travel at so late an hour. 



EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 245 

Beaching the wide undulating surface which 
formed the summit of the divide, the first faint 
shadows of the approaching close of day were 
noticeable, as leaving a small clearing we entered 
a belt of scattering timber through which the 
trail extended for some distance in a nearly 
straight line. Suddenly the long ears of the 
pack mule became erect, and his gait hesitating 
and shy. Looking forward there was visible in 
the trail far ahead through the timber the form 
of what appeared an animal struggling in the 
snow. Quickly detaching the rifle from the 
horn of the saddle, it was raised to fire, when a 
closer glance showed it to be the form of a child, 
while at the same moment a faint cry reached 
the ear. Pushing rapidly forward to the object, 
it proved to be a little girl of some ten or twelve 
years of age, who moaned piteously, as nearly 
exhausted and with aching fingers and toes she 
struggled onward through the snow. The pack 
mule, for the time forgetting his own troubles, 
hesitated for an instant, and cast a sympathetic 
glance at the child as it passed ; then riding close 
beside her, I reached down and pulled her up 
into the saddle. Hastening onward she ex- 
plained between sobs how she had been at the 
house of another settler in a small park just off 
the trail we were traveling, and that her own 
home was but a short distance ahead at the foot 
of the hill, and I listened with inward delight at 
the certainty of enjoying for the night the hos- 
pitality of her grateful parents. Then forged 



246 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

ahead and depositing the child in its mother's 
arms as she was abont to start in pursuit, awk- 
wardly awaited the invitation to dismount and 
remain for the night; then discouraged at the 
outlook, ventured to inquire if such would be 
convenient. Turning half around, with one 
hand on the door latch, she replied, "Naw, we 
hain't got no room, and my man ain't to home, 
neither, and besides we hain't got no hoss feed, 
nohow. There's some folks lives jest down the 
road, and over across the creek, that sometimes 
keeps folks ; I reckon mebbe ye kin git to stay 
there." With this she slammed the door behind 
her in a manner that attracted the attention of 
both animals, who apparently embarrassed, 
looked at each other inquiringly. The mule 
looked up at the writer sort of reproachfully for 
having left a good home with the old lady from 
Washington County, then sidled off in search of 
a camping ground. 

A mile or more down the road and on the op- 
posite bank of the creek stood a log cabin of 
rather diminutive proportions for hotel pur- 
poses. Near the cabin a man with unkempt 
locks and straggling beard was chopping wood, 
while two little tow-headed freckled-faced boys 
with yarn mittens and muskrat-skin caps were 
packing it into the cabin and filling the wood 
box for the night. Fording the stream and rid- 
ing directly to him an appeal was made for a 
night's lodging, while the mule, assuming it 






REMINISCENT BAMBLINGS. 247 

would be granted, continued its course to the 
rear of the cabin where a small corral and a 
couple of stacks of oats cut while green for fod- 
der had already been discovered. The man 
stuck his axe in the chopping block, his hands 
in his trousers pockets, spat a great quantity of 
tobacco juice on the snow, looked up good-natur- 
edly, then surveying the premises generally said, 
"Wall, stranger, we hain't got much fixings for 
keepin' folks, but dog-goned if I don't kinder 
hate to turn a feller out a night like this (it was 
snowing again fiercely) , so if you can make out 
with sich's we've got, why ye kin tackle it." 
With this, he started to lead the way to the cor- 
ral, then turning, called to one of the boys who 
was about entering the house and said, "Tell yer 
maw there's a feller here to stay all night." 

While engaged in caring for the animals, the 
writer related to him briefly the experiences of 
the day, how he had rescued the child of his 
neighbor and after conveying it to its home, had 
been denied shelter for the night. 

"Who d' ye see ?" he asked, "Him or her ?" 
"Her," I replied ; "he was not at home." 
"Gone sum'ers, hey, wall yew betcher life, 
pardner, I'd go most ennywher's to git shet o' 
her ; why if he shud cum hum hisself inside the 
next half hour, he's jest 's liable not to cum enny 
nearer gittin' to stay ther 'n yew did. Jest de- 
pends on how she happens to be feelin' ; mighty 
good woman 'bout sum things, but when she gits 



248 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 

on the warpath her sassiety ain't wuth fightin' 
fer." 

The animals finally cared for and entering 
the cabin through a little lean-to kitchen, and 
from thence into the main living room, a rousing 
fire shot its bright flames upward from the 
hearth of a big stone fireplace around which 
was grouped a herd of seven children, while the 
mother, whose form and movement gave no evi- 
dence of Delsarte training, ambled about in 
preparation of the evening meal. Supper fin- 
ished, we gathered about the old stone fireplace 
ten strong. The host and hostess each filled and 
lighted their pipe and commenced smoking; 
when, privileged by the proceeding, the writer 
did the same. 

The room was large and commodious and 
seemed to embrace the whole of the cabin. In 
each corner of the opposite end of the room 
stood a bed, while at the foot of one was a large 
trundle bed. A few scattered boards rested up- 
on the cross-beams overhead, over the edges of 
which hung a few ropes, straps and the tugs of a 
harness. It was evident there was no sleeping ac- 
commodations up there. A door led out of the 
room from the opposite side from which we had 
entered, and the possibility of its connecting 
with another apartment alone remained. 

Finally one of the children opening it, 
dumped a bucket of ashes out in the snow. It 
now began to appear that the guest was to be 
treated as one of the family. It was a long time 






REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 249 

we had sat and smoked and talked, the pipes be- 
ing filled and refilled, when to give the more 
modestly inclined of the family a chance to re- 
tire, the writer arose, knocked the ashes out of 
his pipe, and remarked the advisability of hav- 
ing a look at the stock to see that everything was 
all right before going to bed. The man endeav- 
ored by all sorts of argument to discourage the 
act as unnecessary, while the woman expressed a 
like opinion. However,regardless of their wishes, 
and after wandering around in the cold and 
snow for sufficient time to enable such as wished 
to retire, the house was re-entered, to find the 
entire family still clustered about the fire. Again 
the pipes were filled and smoked for an hour or 
more, when suddenly yawning, the landlord re- 
marked: "Wall, pardner, I reckon how mebbe 
you'd like to turn in. So when yer ready take 
that ar bed over thar," pointing to one of the 
beds in the corner of the room. "Reckon ye 
don't mind a couple of the young 'uns sleepin' 
with ye, do ye ?" Assuring him that nothing 
would afford greater pleasure, he detailed as 
bedfellows the two boys who were packing wood 
upon the writer's arrival, probably for the rea- 
son that they had known him longest. The bed 
itself seemed to differ in no particular respect 
from beds in which he had before slept, yet some- 
how in finding his way into this one that night, 
and out again the following morning, a certain 
awkwardness possessed him, which he had never 



250 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

before experienced, and will not attempt to de- 
scribe. -S- 

Breakfast over the following morning, the 
animals saddled and packed, and bidding adieux 
to the hospitable settler, his wife and each of the 
seven children, the journey was resumed. The 
storm had cleared during the night, the sky was 
now bright and clear, and the atmosphere exces- 
sively cold. The saddle horse and pack mule 
each arched their back and stepped forward in a 
gingerly manner, while a mingling of squeaks 
and growls emanated from their footsteps as 
they crushed the snow beneath their feet. 

The third day following the summit of the 
Rosita Hills was reached, at the western base of 
which rested the Wet Mountain Valley. Far 
distant along the western border of this valley, 
extended in an unbroken line that matchless 
Cordillera, the Sangre de Christos, rising ab- 
ruptly from a plain on either flank, the Wet 
Mountain Valley to the east, and the San Luis 
Valley to the west, it presents for a hundred 
miles a broadside of mountain sculpture and an 
outline of crest unsurpassed. For a time the 
great white barrier was studied and admired; 
its upper portions silhouetted against a Colorado 
sky and tinged with the glow of a setting sun, 
while here and there along the crest, as described 
by Bret Harte, "A few baby peaks were peeking 
from under their bed cloths of snow." Down 
below in the foot hills nestled the little mining 
camp of Rosita, near the Humboldt and Poca- 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 251 

hontas mines, now well past their zenith of pro- 
duction. A mile or more to the north, and in 
the same eruptive belt, was situated the recently 
discovered bonanza known as the Bassick Mine, 
whose fame had already spread afar ; not alone 
through the marvelous richness of its ore, but 
its phenomenal features and occurrence as well, 
the deposit being a f umarole or solf atara ; a later 
vent, occurring in the throat of a greater volcano 
whose surface area embraced more than a hun- 
dred acres. Down deep in this chimney of 
about forty feet in diameter, and which once 
belched fire, smoke, hot water, steam, and gas, 
men were now engaged in extracting the stony 
substance which gathering therein, had under- 
gone the lengthy chemical influences of an active 
plutonic laboratory, until the fragments through 
disturbance from gaseous forces, and precipita- 
tions from solutions had become first rounded 
into boulder form, and then incrustated with 
concentric layers of mineral compounds, form- 
ing of the whole an ore fabulously rich in gold 
and silver, and as it were, shutting off the fiery 
breath and strangling into lifelessness this once 
appalling igneous monster. 

Away out yonder to the north some five miles 
distant, and well down in the very edge of the 
Wet Mountain Valley, appeared a miscellaneous 
mixture of abodes comprised chiefly of tents and 
rough board shanties. It was Silver Cliff, the 
objective point toward which the pack mule, the 
saddle animal and the writer now resumed their 
course. 



CHAPTEE XIII. 

Silver Cliff, during the winter of 1878 and 
1879, was composed of a single street, which 
ran in an easterly and westerly course along the 
south side of a small drain which led down into 
the valley. On the north side and near its edge 
occurred a projection of eruptive rock (rhyolite) 
heavily stained and blackened with manganese, 
which a force of miners were blasting and exca- 
vating after the manner of a stone quarry. This 
was the celebrated "Racine Boy" mine, the dis- 
covery of which had mainly created the stam- 
pede and established the camp. 

The discovery was made by some lumbermen, 
whose attention was attracted by the discolored 
mass, found scattered throughout particles of 
"horn" silver. And now while the massive out- 
crop was being quarried and the rich ore sorted 
therefrom, hundreds of men were scouring the 
hills round about and sinking prospect holes 
blindly here and there, with no evidence to guide 
them, but filled with the hope and belief that 
each stroke of the pick, each shot they fired, 
would disclose a continuation of the silver- 
studded formation. Hundreds more were arriv- 
ing and each day the radial line starting from 
the common center denoted by the Racine Boy 
was lengthened in describing a circle outside of 



REMINISCENT RAMBLI2STGS. 253 

which only was there ground subject to loca- 
tion. The one street of the town was lined on 
each side with structures as crude and varied as 
the lines of business conducted therein. Sa- 
loons, gambling houses, grocery stores and hard- 
ware establishments mingled and vied with each 
other in their daily transactions, while the great 
general center, where, after nightfall the home- 
less mass of males of all ages and types of char- 
acter met as if by common consent, was at 
"Arbor's" dance hall, a barn-like structure with 
wide open front, and whose interior of one great 
room embraced in its front half a bar, two faro 
tables, a Mexican monte table, a roulette wheel 
and a crap game. The rear half, being reserved 
for dancing, was the realm of a bevy of pow- 
dered and painted females, who, inspired by 
the strains of a piano and violin, flitted here 
and there amongst the groups of men gath- 
ered about the different games, in search of 
partners for a dance, which ended, he was 
escorted to the bar where, in recognition of 
the attention he had received, and at his 
expense, they for a brief time dwelt lovingly 
over the flowing bowl. The fair entertainer 
each time receiving a check for the amount of 
the purchase, upon which she was later paid a 
commission. The dances were short and conse- 
quently the drinks were frequent. Occasion- 
ally, in the case of some individual whose drinks 
had become of sufficient number, his change 
received also became correspondingly short, 



254 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

and this provided another source of revenue, to 
say nothing of his admiration ofttimes inclining 
him to buy wine in place of beer. 

At intervals, to break the monotony of this 
one continual round of pleasure, some hilarious 
prospector or mule skinner would shoot the 
light from one of the kerosene lamps that hung 
in a chandelier above, showering broken glass 
and coal oil upon the dancers' heads, while they 
in turn showered the vilest imprecations upon 
his. The more impecunious huddled about the 
big stove awaiting the general invitation which 
ofttimes came from some whiskey-laden philan- 
thropist to huddle about the bar. Others hov- 
ered watchfully over the faro tables awaiting the 
only "sleeper" to be found in that wide-awake 
throng. The little ball spun around and 
around the stationary border of the roulette 
wheel, and then fell into one of the pockets of 
the rapidly revolving center, and rode swiftly 
away in an opposite direction, while the oper- 
ator cashed the bets that won and took posses- 
sion of those that lost. And thus the wild 
revelry continued until the coal oil lamps 
burned low and the first faint light of coming 
day tinged the topmost peaks on the crest of the 
Sangre de Christo, far out across the valley to 
the west. 

On the southern slope of the drain, some dis- 
tance above the Racine Boy, the snow had 
mostly been removed through the agency of 



EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 255 

wind and the sun's rays over an area of some 
considerable extent, which was now well cov- 
ered with the tents of prospectors and amongst 
which the writer pitched his own. 

It was a settlement of motley denizens with 
no written law of municipal government, no 
titled holdings, no regulated thoroughfares or 
sanitary system, and no class distinction, save 
the horse thief and professional claim jumper 
on the one side, and the combined heterogeneous 
mass of inhabitants, irrespective of race or pre- 
vious condition of servitude, who steadfastly 
observed the unwritten laws of the camp, on the 
other. 

By far the greater number of the settlement's 
population were men, but here: and there the 
presence of a woman was unmistakably denoted 
by the size and frequency of the washings which 
appeared on the guy-ropes of a tent, and the 
children who clambered upon the backs of the 
numerous jacks, whose feed being now well 
buried beneath the snow, hung about the camp 
in search of other food. 

Having selected a residence location in the 
socialistic community, there was first to con- 
tend with that difficult task of pitching a wall 
tent without assistance, when suddenly aroused 
by the precipitate flight of two jacks who were 
hovering closely about the flaps of the tent near- 
est by, there was seen to emerge therefrom a 
tall, raw-boned, broad-shouldered, unkempt spec- 
imen of manhood, not yet past thirty years of 

17 



256 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

age. He was clad in a blue flannel shirt with 
coat and overalls of brown canvas, profusely 
decorated with fastenings of copper rivets, to- 
gether with a fairly generous and apparently 
unstudied application of candle drippings scat- 
tered artistically about over a faultless and sub- 
stantial groundwork, laid upon the aforemen- 
tioned garments, and formed through innumer- 
able and alternate applications of bacon grease, 
together with that of the soil of this and 
other camps respectively. About his waist was 
strapped the conventional six shooter, while upon 
his head he wore, in the most unassuming man- 
ner, unconscious and utterly innocent of any in- 
tent at personal display, a sombrero, the crown of 
which, though low, possessed the most expansive 
brim yet seen about the camp, and from beneath 
which appeared the tangled locks of a sandy or 
sunburned hair. This article of dress, which 
he never removed except when sleeping, indi- 
vidualized the man to an extent wherein with- 
out it few of his acquaintances recognized him. 
It proved his most cherished holding. Its con- 
dition indicated that he had already clung to it 
for a great length of time, not necessarily 
through impecuniousness, but most likely 
through inability to duplicate its most wonderful 
brim. Several missing front teeth, in the ab- 
sence of positive evidence to the contrary, some- 
how suggested an association of their disap- 
pearance with the butt end of a six shooter. 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 257 

Straightening up from the crouching posi- 
tion in which he emerged from the tent, he ex- 
claimed, "How d'y, neighbor, lemme give ye a 
hand thar." !N"ot waiting for further consent, 
he strode forward and set to work. The tent 
was soon pitched and the packs deposited 
therein, when reaching down in the pocket of 
his overalls he brought forth in one capacious 
paw an old silver watch, a jack knife and a 
plug of chewing tobacco. Sorting out the jack 
knife, he dropped it back in the pocket, then 
holding the watch in his left hand, he looked 
at its open face meditatively, while with his 
side teeth he tugged at the plug of tobacco which 
he held in his right. Then, finally gaining the 
chew of tobacco and a conclusion at the same 
time, he remarked, "It's plumb noon right now, 
so you just come over and have a little snack uv 
suthin to eat with me; I've done got a fire goin', 
and it won't take no time to git some grub 
ready." Suiting his movements to the sugges- 
tion, he turned and passed out of the tent, stop- 
ping on the outside and holding open the flap, 
calling loudly, "Come on thar, pardner, don't 
stop to do no fixin' up." 

Following him into his tent, he commenced 
dinner arrangements and a line of conversation 
at the same time. Standing over the litle sheet 
iron stove in the corner and slicing bacon into 
a frying pan, he began a line of questioning as 
follows, "When'd ye git here ? Where ye f rum ? 



258 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGM3. 

What'd ye say yer name wus ?" Then, with- 
out awaiting a reply to the last question, con- 
tinued, "My name's Halloway, Bill Halloway, 
I'm 'rigin'ly frum Missoury, Ozark county, 
Missoury, way down next to Arkinsaw, been 
knockin' round out in these 'ere mountuns 
though for goin' on seven year now." Gathering 
up the bacon rinds, which he had sliced off, he 
strode across the tent to its entrance, and throw- 
ing them out to the jacks, who had again re- 
turned, he continued, "Haint staked enny 
ground yit, I reckon haint been here long nuff 
to look round much? Well, when ye be, if ye 
don't find nothin, 't suits ye enny better, I'll put 
ye on to a piece of ground up next to the claim 
I'm workin' thet's a bird, it's jest's good's mine, 
and I'm down 'bout ten feet now, and yew bet 
she's showin' up great. Mangineez's beginnin' to 
cum in, un she's lookin way up, un I low she's 
goin' ter make a mine." It was evident he had 
reached the danger line in his relations with 
and judgment of his property. A period which 
awaits every prospector in the possession and 
early development of his holdings, the strongest 
and most unmistakable symptoms of which 
weakness and absolute inability to distinguish 
its most glaring signs of worthlessness, and his 
own blind determination to construe the same 
into indisputable evidence of a bonanza, is inci- 
dentally, his inclination to make it the sole topic 
of conversation, but mainly his uncontrollable 
habit of sexing the cherished holding, and a 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



259 



never 



failing and frequent reference to the 
same in the feminine gender. 

Being wholly unacquainted with the camp, 
and having no previous engagement to fulfill 
with any other portion of it, and the deep snow 
covering and concealing the entire surface, it 




Bill Halloway takes the children for a ride about the camp. 



seemed wise to accept the man's proposition and 
locate the ground he recommended. 

As time passed and a more thorough 
acquaintance and closer relationship was grad- 
ually formed, Bill Halloway proved a genial, 
whole-souled fellow on all occasions, a good 
neighbor down in the little camp on the drain, 



260 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

and an agreeable owner of adjoining property 
up in the hills, notwithstanding the fact that at 
intervals he made a few good natured displays 
of harmless little combinations of Missouri and 
"Arkinsaw" habits acquired in his early home 
down there on the border. And hence, when on 
occasional sprees he patroled the little home 
camp, and roared and laughed and whooped, and 
fired his six shooter right and left into the air, 
and scattered handfuls of bright colored candies 
broadcast upon the snow, the children followed 
and flocked about him as joyous, fearless and 
lovingly as when, in his condition of most in- 
tense sobriety, he fondly and patiently toiled in 
the arrangement of a harness from lash ropes 
and pack saddle cinches, and hitched the largest 
and gentlest of his two jacks to an improvised 
sleigh which he had rudely constructed for them 
out of goods boxes, and loaded them all in for 
a ride about the camp. 

The writer's discovery shaft had reached a 
depth of ten feet, and as he could no longer 
throw out the material with a shovel, it became 
necessary to resort to the use of a windlass and 
climb out of the hole each time the bucket was 
filled, and hoist it to the surface and dump it, and 
lower it back into place, and then climb down 
again and refill it, which was a slow and labo- 
rious process, and one in which Halloway had 
for some time past been engaged. 



EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 261 

And so, born of a necessity which had now 
arisen, and which our individual conditions 
were incapable of relieving, and which was 
unquestionably withholding from the world's 
supply of precious metals the combined product 
of two bonanzas, we conceived the idea (in the 
absence of capital) of avoiding the expensive 
demands of hired labor, and to that end formed a 
sort of development trust, or, more strictly 
speaking, a co-operative organization wherein the 
combined force of the two properties, consisting 
of himself and myself, should operate them 
alternately, working his claim one day (which 
claim as announced upon his claim stake was 
the "Pijjuntoad Pol," and which Bill had 
named in honor of a certain siren down at the 
Arbor dance hall, who executed with exceeding 
excellence certain steps and maneuvers employed 
at dances in the region about Bill's home on the 
Arkansas border. ) The following day the entire 
force would be transferred to the "ISTil Des- 
perandum" which was the writer's claim, and 
thus the plants of the two properties were oper- 
ated to their fullest capacity, and to the best 
possible advantage. 

Yet, still in the midst of this finally arranged 
and seemingly fortunate alliance (with the 
shadowy form of prosperity hovering so close 
that already our dreamy vision had identified 
it, and all possible surprise had given way to 
eagerness for its nearer approach and a final em- 



262 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

brace) there lurked another detachment of that 
subtle foe, misfortune. 

The following day was Christmas, and all 
day long the hallowed influence of its near 
approach had been noticeable in Bill as he toiled 
and talked of its coming. There was a notice- 
able rattling of the stove lids and fry pans, 
together with the tin cups and plates that night 
in Bill's tent, as he prepared his evening meal 
and later washed and wiped the dishes, which 
evidenced uncommon haste, and so far exceeded 
the writer's similar labors in the result of final 
accomplishment, that he was still eating when, 
peering in, he called, "Come on, pardner, les' 
go over to town un see Santy Claws." Making 
the excuse of unfinished household work, the 
truth of which was self-evident, he departed 
with a final admonition to "hurry up and come 
over." 

An hour or more had elapsed since his de- 
parture, while his instructions yet remained 
unheeded, for, having arranged the supper 
dishes, mixed a batch of sour dough bread and 
placed it in the oven to bake, washed a red 
bandana handkerchief and hung it close beside 
the little sheet iron stove to dry, then, in further 
effort tending toward improvement of personal 
appearance in preparation for the coming Christ- 
mas festivities, the writer sat patching a huge 
rent in his overalls, when, from over in the 
direction of town, came the Bang ! Bang ! Bang ! 



REMINISCENT RAM BEINGS. 263 

of a six shooter, followed by a whoop and yell 
so familiar that there no longer remained any 
doubt as to Bill's having found Santa Claus. 
It was late, when the noise of his demonstrations 
having finally ceased, the rent in the overalls 
having been closed, and its location now denoted 
only by a broad irregular seam toward which 
a cluster of wrinkles pointed from every direc- 
tion, the writer stole cautiously forth over into 
the town and down its single yet crowded 
thoroughfare, watching closely for Bill, not with 
a view of acquiring his society, but rather to 
avoid it, and wondering meanwhile that his 
location remained so unmarked by further 
sounds of Christmas cheer on his part, when 
finally concluding that possibly the strong arm 
of the law had interposed an objection to his 
monopoly of cheerfulness, and had forced him 
into silence through durance vile, strolled on 
viewing the sights and visiting the old familiar 
haunts in their regular order, when finally the 
dance hall was reached at the lower end of the 
street, radiant with light and the decorations of 
pine and spruce bough, crowded to the open 
doorway with a horde of human beings whose 
numbers seemed greater than ever before, whose 
characters were even more varied, as well as 
the purposes which brought them hither. 

Approaching the open doorway, no sound of 
music accompanying a cotillion or Virginia reel 
interspersed with the loud and regular tones of 
the caller was heard, but instead of these there 



264 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

rose above the hum of voices the sweet low 
strains of a Christmas carol. The dealers sat 
idly at their tables watching the merry, motley 
throng, while> the man at the roulette wheel, to 
while away the time and incidentally call the 
players thither, spun the little ball around its 
course with clock-work regularity, unable, how- 
ever, to attract the attention he sought. For 
upon this house devoted to ribald revelry, there 
had, for the time, fallen the hush of a hallowed 
influence that so completely overshadowing vice, 
checked the maddest in their career, so purified 
the very atmosphere that was wont to be, that 
even the most chaste and timid passer-by paused 
to note the change within. 

Entering and elbowing a passage through the 
good-natured, joyous crowd, stopping now to 
exchange a holiday greeting with some neigh- 
boring knight of the hills, and again to convince 
another (whose cheer had reached the stage of 
wholesale entertainment) of the imperative 
causes and attending sorrow of declination, at 
last turned to the right, and there, curled up on 
a faro table (not in use), the broad brimmed 
sombrero resting close beside him, and in its 
absence his head sheltered beneath the protecting 
branches of a huge Christmas tree which reared 
itself from a large dry goods box nearby, 
its myriad of candles shed their light full upon 
the slumbering form of Bill Halloway. 

Apparently unable to longer follow the swift 
journeyings of his friend, St. Nicholas, he had 



KEMLNTSCENT RAMBLINGS. 265 

abandoned further attempt and cast himself 
down, a devoted, admiring, now senseless wor- 
shipper at the shrine of his creation, while the 
faint traces of a lingering smile of joyous resig- 
nation still rested upon his freckled and sun- 
burned features, further heightened and intensi- 
fied through the direct rays of a tallow dip 
nestled in the innermost recesses of a bough 
which closely overhung his head. It was indeed 
a scene to be preserved, if from no other motive 
than consideration of those who had enjoyed 
the last few hours of his preceding wakefulness. 
And stealing softly away, the writer placed him- 
self beyond the limit of any possible contribu- 
tion to his awakening. 

For some time his slumbers had continued, 
when suddenly loud shouts of laughter arose 
from the vicinity of the Christmas tree, attended 
by a surging crowd in that direction. Ap- 
proaching as closely as possible, there was seen 
sitting upon the edge of the faro table, his long 
legs hanging listlessly below, his body inclined 
forward and braced laterally by his arms, what 
otherwise appeared the form of Halloway, save 
that in place of the familiar and time-honored 
sombrero with its enormous brim, there rested 
demurely upon his head the little skull cap of an 
ancient alchemist. And there he sat, stupidly 
gazing at the boisterous, laughing crowd before 
him, as yet but half conscious of himself being 
the object of their jest. And sitting thus he 
awaited the fading of his stupor and the final 



266 REMINISCENT E AMBLINGS. 

dawn of a full realization of the truth. And 
yet the mystery of its cause remained to him 
unsolved, until, still sitting there, his eyes rested 
upon the huge mirror which confronted him 
from behind the bar, and therein he saw him- 
self as others saw him. Reaching up, he quickly 
removed the insignificant headgear, held it an 
instant before his wondering gaze, then quickly 
turning about in search of his own, his eyes fell 
upon a circle of felt with a large round hole 
in its center, through which appeared the bright 
green covering of the faro table upon which it 
rested. In an instant the truth was revealed. 
Some facetious fiend had, while he slept, sto- 
len up and passing a sharp knife about the 
crown at its point of union with the brim, com- 
pletely separated the two, and leaving the 
parts otherwise undisturbed and occupying their 
respective relations to each other, the crime re- 
mained unnoticed until Bill finally arising, and 
in a half aroused and stupefied condition, invol- 
untarily possessed himself of and placed the 
treasured holding upon his head, unmindful of 
the fact that the crown and brim had severed 
their connection with each other, and thereby 
forever destroyed the happy combination that 
had so long been the object of his deepest pride 
and the bulwark of his entire happiness. For 
a brief space he stood paralyzed and speechless, 
then awakening from the horrible dream into 
a full realization of its reality, he turned in the 
frenzy of his outraged feelings, and with his face 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 267 

blanched with the pent up poison of indescrib- 
able hatred and anger, his speech stifled with 
curses, and with his hand upon his six 
shooter, he slowly advanced toward the crowd 
which confronted him and which now surged 
backward to escape his wrath, demanding to 
know the perpetrator of the deed. Ex- 
asperated at the sudden cessation of mirth 
(which in itself conveyed the impression of 
general complicity and wholesale guilt) and 
unable to obtain an utterance or expression 
of any kind from a single one of the great 
number about him, he burst into renewed frenzy, 
and jerking the six shooter from its holster, fired 
two shots in rapid succession close above the 
heads of his audience, much for the same pur- 
pose, it seemed, that a speaker might sound the 
gavel, but with far different effect, for in place 
of bringing the meeting to order it precipitated 
a frightful state of disorder which Bill aug- 
mented by occasional additional shots and a 
torrent of threats, abuse and blasphemy, as the 
crowd rushed pell mell in all directions for 
escape. 

Enjoying a more intimate acquaintance than 
the balance with the outraged individual, and 
prophesying closely the results which would fol- 
low, and preferring to witness the affair from an 
absolutely neutral and unprejudiced standpoint, 
the writer had timed his retreat so far in ad- 
vance of the balance as to be well outside the 
building when the general stampede commenced. 



268 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

And now, as he charged about the almost empty 
hall, occupied only by a few who, like the bar- 
tender were penned in during the stampede, his 
ragings rose and fell like the hush and howl 
of a mighty tempest, as, approaching one of 
his captives, he quieted down into a pathetic 
appeal for some evidence in the case, then, 
gazing again with uncontrollable grief and anger 
upon the mutilated remains of the loved som- 
brero, burst forth anew with frenzy so fierce 
that the very lights in the Christmas tree 
flickered and burned dim in the poisonous at- 
mosphere of his wrath. 

All the Christmas day which followed, Bill 
sulked in his tent, issuing forth only a few times 
and in a hurried manner in search of some pos- 
sible clue which had suggested itself to his 
gloomy thought, and each time returning with 
a fresh store of disappointment and depression. 
Entering his tent Christmas morning, he was 
found alone in his grief and silent anger, with 
needle and thread, tearfully engaged in the al- 
most pathetic and hopeless task of restoring 
to the glorious, but dethroned brim, the crown 
to which it was entitled. And now, unable to 
endure the insufferable sorrow and degradation, 
heightened by the constant scenes of his humili- 
ating misfortune, and the indignity it had 
heaped upon him, and powerless to redress his 
wrong through fear of injuring an innocent 
party (for Bill was a just man) he, the follow- 
ing morning folded his tent, packed the two 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 269 

jacks, and shouldering his rifle, silently and sor- 
rowfully stole away out of the camp and over 
the hills to the north, taking with him the key 
to the co-operative scheme so recently inaugu- 
rated, and so successfully operated, ignoring 
and heartlessly deserting the Pij juntoad Pol and 
the riches it had in store for him, and enforcing 
upon the writer's part the same attitude toward 
the Nil Desperandum. 

And now that Bill had finally departed, 
the writer wandered, desolate and discour- 
aged, back to the scene of previous operations 
and, leaning against the windlass of his own 
claim, viewed with grief the two now silent and 
abandoned workings; then far out across the 
valley and beneath the shadow of the towering 
Sangre de Christos, saw the retreating forms of 
Bill and the two jacks, now mere specks in the 
distance as they moved slowly northward over 
the frozen snow. Little by little they moved on 
and out of sight, and with their final disap- 
pearance seemed to fade the last ray of hope. 
Bousing from the melancholy of the surround- 
ings, the writer gathered up the remaining tools, 
and dejectedly wended his way back to the now 
lonely camp upon the drain, passed in approach- 
ing his own tent over the site recently occupied 
by that of Bill's, and stepping upon the mattress 
of pine boughs which had been his bed, noticed 
beneath his feet, and partially concealed by the 



270 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

evergreens, a letter soiled and worn. Picking it 
up, he unfolded the sheet and read as follows : 

November 7th, 1878. 
My Dear Son: 

I got your last letter you wrote f rum Silver- 
ton in the San Juan country, and it found us all 
in good helth, and we was all glad to here thet 
you was enjoin the same. 

I hev sent you too pares of wollin socks and 
a pare of yarn mittuns thet I nit fer you fer 
crismas. We got wurd the uther day thet they 
got thet hafbrede stock rusler thet kild youre 
poor bruther Tom over in the nashun last fall. 
They sent Tom's belongings to us sum time ago 
and I sent his gun and belt rite on to you soons 
I got em and also that hroad trim hat he wore 
thet you tuk such a likin to when you was home 
last time fer I want you to hev um Bill fer 
keapsakes. 

Write to us reel oftun and let us no if you 
got the box alrite and how youre gittin along 
all the time and hopin youle hev the marist kind 
of a crismas I remane, 

Youre luvin mother 

MlRANDA HaELOWAY. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

Bill Halloway had gone but a few days 
when, lonely in the absence of his genial and hos- 
pitable society, nnable to form a like alliance 
with another neighboring operator, and discour- 
aged in further attempts to resume operations 
upon his own claim, (the very name of which 
now in utter helplessness became a hollow 
mockery) the writer followed the course of Bill, 
and packing the little outfit on the back of the 
wise mule (who from the very first had shown 
his disapproval of the undertaking) wended his 
way dejectedly over the hills and out of the 
camp. 

That all human kind, of whatsoever age, are 
but children of larger growth is everywhere and 
at all times evidenced by their fanciful ideas 
of the desirability, and the absurd and fictitious 
value which they place upon all things beyond 
their reach ; and distance but lends intensity to 
the emerald hue. In this, no class ranks those 
engaged in the search for precious metals. A 
neighboring country, still retained by the In- 
dian, grows daily more alluring until its soil 
possesses a richness unheard of, while its moun- 
tain sides and the sands of its streams simply 
glitter with gold. 

18 



272 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Such was the estimation in which had long 
been held that great area lying west of the main 
range in Colorado, and known as the Ute Indian 
reservation, the demands upon the Government 
for the opening of which were now rapidly 
growing. Notwithstanding the pilgrimage with 
Evans, hereinbefore related, there was still re- 
tained the longing and vivid imagination of con- 
ditions which experience had already shown to 
be false, but of which there was evidently re- 
quired still another object lesson to fully and 
forever impress its truth. 

And now, shut out from all other nearer 
sources of wealth, the writer's inclinations nat- 
urally centered themselves upon this one great- 
est of all possibilities, this one main ambition 
to which he had clung from the first ; and thus 
influenced abruptly shaped the pack mule's 
course for Denver to await the opening of 
spring, the melting of the deep snows which lay 
to the west of the main range, and the first op- 
portunity to again enter that far away and phan- 
tom treasure vault. Awaiting all this, the horse 
and mule were housed in Bailey's corral at Wa- 
zee and Sixteenth streets, and accepting the 
position of day clerk at the Planters hotel im- 
mediately adjoining, we together settled down to 
await the coming of spring. 

Great crowds en route to Leadville filled the 
hotel to overflowing, and the mule would stand 
for hours at the corral fence and look across the 
alley into the hotel windows, his face lighted up 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 273 

with approval and satisfaction at the enormous 
trade the house was having, and the hope that in 
the rush of business, further campaigns in the 
mountains would be overlooked, while he re- 
mained undisturbed and happy. 

The time finally came, however, when the 
snows upon the high and little traveled passes 
of the Saguache range had melted to an extent 
that rendered passage with pack animals pos- 
sible. 

The Ute Indian reservation comprised an 
immense tract of about eighteen thousand square 
miles; about equal to the combined areas of 
Vermont and ]STew Hampshire. Its eastern 
boundaries followed the line of the 107th mer- 
idian from a point a short distance above the 
38th parallel northward a distance of one hun- 
dred and forty miles. Between this eastern 
boundary and the Continental Divide (of which 
the Saguache range formed a part) existed 
a stretch of broken and mountainous country, 
varying in width from twenty-five to seventy- 
five miles, owing to the irregular course of the 
main Cordilleras. 

The southern half of this belt of territory 
was drained by the Gunnison river, and was 
familiarly known as the "Gunnison country." 

This section bordered that portion of the res- 
ervation believed to possess the greatest mineral 
resources, and toward it now flocked great num- 
bers of adventurous spirits filled with visions of 



274 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

success and the enthusiasm of an uncertainty; 
eager in their ambition to be as near the border 
as possible when the gates to the coveted realm 
should finally be opened, and meanwhile to ex- 
plore the bordering domain referred to, of which 
little more was actually known than of the res- 
ervation itself, and which, in the minds of the 
imaginative horde of fortune hunters, must cer- 
tainly be strewn with a greater or less amount 
of treasure which had naturally spilled over the 
eastern edge of the overflowing storehouse of the 
Utes. 

Aside from this, being close to the line 
afforded possible opportunities to make little 
pilgrimages across the boundary and familiarize 
oneself with the trails and general topography 
in advance of the rush which would soon follow. 

The time finally arrived when the snows had 
melted upon the high mountain passes to an 
extent that permitted crossing, and only the 
swollen streams interfered seriously with travel 
across country and along unfrequented routes. 

Two English lads, named Walter R. Askew 
and Percy Eamsden, who, characteristic of their 
race, had left their homes in the British Isles, 
not for a campaign through the parks of a 
neighboring country, but upon a pilgrimage far 
out across the Atlantic and through the vast- 
ness of the newest portions of a new world, had 
reached Denver. Both were evidently of excel- 
lent family, and possessed, aside from natur- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 275 

ally inherent graces, a good education, together 
with ample funds for all necessities, and being 
inclined toward establishing a residence in the 
land, (though their maiden efforts and experi- 
ence led them an out-of-door, adventurous fron- 
tier life to which they were not averse) it was 
quickly arranged that they should unite with the 
writer in extended wanderings about the border 
lands of the Utes. 

All in readiness, the little cavalcade filed 
out of Denver, and toward the great range of 
mountains in another attack upon the treasure 
vaults that lay beyond. 

It was early in the season yet, and crossing 
South Park and the Park range, and entering 
the valley of the Arkansas, our course led over 
Poncha pass, into the San Luis valley, westward 
up the Saguache river to its head, then across 
the Cochetopa hills and down Cochetopa and 
Tomochi creeks to the Gunnison river. From 
far away up on the forks of this stream rumors 
had been for some time current concerning rich 
discoveries of gold and silver, and already little 
bands had centered at certain points called 
camps, to each of which had already been given 
a name, and who vied with each other in the al- 
luring tales sent forth of the wealth possessed. 

Some ten or twelve miles above the Gunni- 
son river forked, its easterly branch being 
known as Taylor river and having its head in 



276 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

that great open country or park into which 
Evans and the writer had two years previously 
found their way in escaping from the Utes. The 
remaining branch continued more northerly, 
where its nascent waters emanated from fields 
of snow in that rugged range known as the Elk 
mountains. 

Up this last mentioned fork, a route was fol- 
lowed past "Jack's cabin," some fifteen miles 
above, a lonely abode on the easterly bluffs of 
the river and the only settlement for many miles 
about save the camp of the wandering prospector 
who was now beginning to appear. 

"Jack" was a character known by nearly all 
the Indians to the west, and for many years 
known of, in the white settlements far to the 
east. No one seemed to know his other name, 
or from whence he came, or inquired. He was 
a large raw-boned, black whiskered, good na- 
tured, hospitable frontiersman, who dwelt here 
alone in a log cabin built by himself, and may, 
so far as known, have been the original subject 
of the mythical man and house. Jack was a 
hunter and trapper, professionally, while inci- 
dentally he cultivated a little garden patch near 
the cabin and washed some gold from the river 
at the foot of the bluff. 

The saddles of an elk, recently shot, hung 
from the limb of a tree near the river bank, and 
purchasing a quantity thereof, we moved on up 
the stream a further distance of six or eight 
miles, where the stream again forked, forming 



EEMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 277 

a westerly branch known as Slate river, and 
an easterly one known as East river. 

Up Slate river some six miles from its month 
and npon the point of land separating the two 
forks aforementioned, there rose from the cre- 
taceous beds forming the surface, a butte or iso- 
lated mountain of porphyretic trachyte, being a 
fragment remaining from the erosion of the pre- 
existing great sheet of this matter, which once 
covered the section. Its crest rose to an eleva- 
tion of over twelve thousand feet above the level 
of the sea, and to over three thousand feet 
above the valley which surrounded it. It was 
one of the heroic statues in the great gallery of 
the region, carved by nature from the endless 
mass with her varied tools of rain, snow, frost, 
ice, etc., and forming a giant sentinel of the 
valley known as Crested Butte, whose towering 
form could be seen from afar by the wan- 
dering prospector as he journeyed up the drain- 
age of the Gunison en route to the Elk mountain. 

On the westerly bank of Slate river, directly 
opposite the butte, a camp was already started, 
which bore the name of the towering mass which 
confronted it. Thither we shaped our course, 
and for the time cast our lot with the motley 
little throng which had preceded. 

The camp was yet embryological indeed. 
Only one saloon graced the settlement, that kept 
by a burly old German named Burns, together 
with his wife, a plodding, industrious German, 
who yet spoke English with difficulty. Each 



278 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

were possessed of the prosperous air that be- 
speaks an extensive trade and lack of competi- 
tion. In further explanation of which, though 
they had settled in the camp some time since, 
and business had been brisk meanwhile, and 
the small stock of goods which attended their 
arrival having displayed but one moderate sized 
package that might contain whiskey, and no 
consignment having since reached them, and the 
stock bearing no evidence of becoming exhausted, 
it was soon generally accepted that they under- 
stood the business in which they were engaged 
thoroughly, were solvent, prosperous and enti- 
tled to a flattering degree of credit; and no 
further questions arose save when some regular 
and wholesale patron reached a condition so crit- 
ical as to require a body guard, or another was 
transported over the range and far away to the 
lunatic asylum at Pueblo; until one day Burns 
lost his recipe for the manufacture of his goods, 
and a party finding it and determining that the 
total cost of production was but fifty cents per 
gallon, decided to enter into competition with 
him. And here Burns' downfall began, to hasten 
which he imbibed freely of his own whiskey, 
which he had heretofore rigidly shunned ; until 
declining health, fortune and final death closed 
his heretofore prosperous career. 

The camp was one whose resources embraced 
not only gold and silver, but in the upper cre- 
taceous beds, whose exposed edges presented 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 279 

themselves in the bluffs of Slate river valley on 
the west and north, and which through the 
agency of eruptive forces were uplifted into high 
mountain ranges farther away, 
there occurred exposed, work- 
able measures of the finest coal, 
which as yet was of but little 
use save for the limited domes- 
tic requirements which ex- 
isted upon the ground. 

In "O-be-JoyfuP gulch, 
which led into Slate river 
from the west, rich silver 
ore had been found ; also in 
Poverty gulch farther to the 
north. Poverty gulch, however, 
was regarded as somewhat of a 
mineral reserve. Well up in 
its fastnesses dwelt an unique 
character, known as "Yank" 
Baxter. No one seemed to know 
of his coming, the earliest arriv- 
als found him there, thoroughly 
established and with the gulch 
staked from its mouth well 
up on the range at its head. 

Yank was a man of huge 
proportions, raw-boned, angu- 
lar, ill-shaped, and unkempt. " Yank " Baxter - 
His roar, when excited, might be easily mistaken, 
even in this arid country, for a fog-horn ; while 




280 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

his movements and manners were in direct com- 
petition with the hippotamus, especially when 
packing home from the butte a goodly supply 
of Burns' home-made whiskey. His presence for 
so long a time in the gulch had in fact driven 
out every other kind of wild animal, and only 
the echoing hillsides, it seemed, dare make reply 
to his violent assertions and frightful impre- 
cations. Later, when the district had attracted 
more attention, and purchasers began to appear 
in search of property, Yank's holdings were in 
the market, with the conditions imposed that 
a the feller that bought it must bring the money 
right up into Poverty gulch and pay it to him on 
the dump." Only a few minutes of Yank's so- 
ciety was required on the part of a purchaser 
unacquainted with him to form the impression 
that it was not a safe thing to do, and so a sale 
was never effected until, later, Yank died and 
the hazardous conditions were removed. 

Nearly opposite the camp a drain entered 
Slate river from the east, known as Washington 
gulch, which in still earlier times had been a 
placer camp, and which was one of the points 
visited by Evans and the writer in their wan- 
derings during the summer of 1877. 

Beyond this and over on East river another 
little band had established a camp at the mouth 
of Copper creek, a tributary which entered East 
river from the east. High up in the precipi- 
tous breaks at the head of this stream a dis- 
covery had been made which produced masses 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 281 

of "wire silver" of marvelous size and richness, 
and which, though it meant little in its indica- 
tion of an ore producer of great magnitude, was 
best calculated, (as ever before and since) to 
excite and lure the seeker after wealth, and thus 
drew largely upon the heretofore contented 
owners and searchers about O-be-Joyful and 
Poverty gulches to the west. Amongst the first 
to be influenced was the writer and about the 
only one to remain unmoved through the entire 
excitement which prevailed, was the hermit of 
Poverty gulch, Yank Baxter. 

It was during one of those prolonged and 
steady rainfalls so frequent during the early 
summer months upon the Pacific slope of the 
Rocky mountains, wherein the rain drenches 
everything without, and the saturated atmos- 
phere dampens everything within, that the pack 
animals were hurried forward along the trail 
and over the rolling hills covered with bunch 
grass which formed the divide between Slate 
and East rivers ; now and then plunging through 
small drains grown dense with willows, and 
emerging upon the opposite bank as from a 
plunge bath, and at last descending into the 
little camp of Gothic, pushed hurriedly up 
the one thoroughfare, bordered with tents and 
occasional crude log structures, in search of 
shelter or a camping place. 

Passing the saloon and dance hall, the 
writer's attention was attracted to a Pinto sad- 



282 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

die pony, close beside which was huddled a little 
brown pack mule, each standing ankle deep in 
the mud, their backs arched and their tails 
turned to the storm. The long, wet ears of the 
little mule hung dejectedly downward, while 
from the water-soaked pack upon his back the 
rain trickled down in little streams into the 
mud below. 

There was something in the scene with which 
the writer's mind seemed strikingly familiar, 
yet he could in no manner correlate it with any 
earthly experience he had ever undergone; and 
riding on and into camp at the upper end of 
town, he had fully credited the impression to 
some dim vision of pre-existence, when suddenly 
he recognized the two animals as those of the 
lone prospector with the condensed cooking out- 
fit, who had the previous summer camped one 
night near the Hayden Survey outfit at the 
junction of Torrey's fork with Wind river in 
Wyoming. 

An hour or more passed in drying clothes 
when strolling back down the street he found the 
little mule and saddle pony still standing where 
he had left them. Entering the dance hall, there 
standing before the bar, brandishing the old 
sombrero and haranguing the crowd, was the 
identical individual referred to, now gloriously 
drunk, and as noisy and demonstrative as he was 
quiet, sullen and unobtrusive at the camp on 
Torrey's fork. 

The door had scarcely closed when he had 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 283 

seen, recognized and embraced the writer with 
all the ardency of a high degree of intoxication. 
Partially freeing himself from his clutches he 
managed to make his way outside, still clung to, 
however, by his admiring friend. Here he ap- 
pealed to the man's finer feelings in behalf of 
the horse and mule, then told him a graphic tale 
of his own ill health, absolute inability to drink 
whiskey, and extreme danger from getting wet, 
but it was all of no avail. Then after a lengthy 
argument out there in the rain and mud, the 
whole was compromised through a final propo- 
sition that the writer should become his guest 
for the night in camp. Glancing at his would-be 
host (whose general tout ensemble is hereinbe^ 
fore described) then at the rain soaked bedding 
on the back of the drenched and bedraggled 
mule, and finally round about over the dismal, 
vapory storm-clad landscape, he fortified him- 
self for one final and determined declination 
of this unwelcome hospitality. ~No great prog- 
ress had been made when the dark clouds which 
had been rapidly gathering upon the man's face, 
emitted a storm of antagonism to his wishes in 
the matter, wherein it was readily seen, as he 
significantly fumbled at the old navy at his 
hip, that further excuses were now entirely out 
of order and altogether imprudent ; and so, trail- 
ing along with him and the two animals through 
the mud and rain and the drenched grass and 
willows far away down the valley of East river 
until he at last reached a place that seemed to 



284 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

suit him, we camped ; and when he had finally 
unpacked and deposited the paraphernalia in 
one soggy mass upon the wet ground, the shades 
of night were drawing well about and adding, 
if possible, to the desolation and discomfort of 
the scene. All the while the drunken old kid- 
napper had watched closely, kept himself well on 
the defensive and given not the slightest oppor- 
tunity to either escape or get the drop on him, 
which last was a difficult thing for one unarmed 
to accomplish. 

It was now intensely dark when, surrender- 
ing the hopeless task of starting a camp fire, 
and supper seeming not to be on his list of 
entertainments, we nestled together on the pile 
of wet blankets, where he drew forth a quart 
bottle of the vilest whiskey and pressed his at- 
tentions even more forcibly than heretofore. 
Feigning the utmost pleasure at this unlooked- 
for method of entertainment, the old pirate was 
made to feel that he had at last struck the 
key-note of his guest's happiness, and favored by 
the intense darkness, he managed to waste 
large quantities of the fluid on his shirt 
front and to swallow very little, while os- 
tensibly clinging lovingly to the bottle. Ap- 
preciative of the writer's apparent thirst and 
capacity for absorbing stimulants and not 
to be outdone by one whose years denoted 
inexperience, he now applied himself earn- 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 285 

estly to the task of acquiring his share of 
the rapidly disappearing refreshment. 

Soon the welcome signs of drowsiness made 
their appearance. His speech became more and 
more incoherent, as gradually he relinquished 
his watchfulness. Finally his head sank upon 
his breast, while he struggled feebly for an in- 
stant to maintain an upright position, then rolled 
helplessly off the bundle of bedding into a pool 
of water by his side. 

For the following few minutes the writer sat 
and peered at him through the darkness, grati- 
fied at the result, and to make sure that he was 
not being entrapped into an attempt to escape. 
The man's heavy breathing gave ample evidence 
that his condition was not counterfeit, and steal- 
ing over beside him, the old cap and ball JSTavy 
was slipped from its holster and deposited care- 
fully in the shallow pool of water by his side as 
though it had fallen there by chance, and where 
the cap and priming might become thoroughly 
soaked. Then, stealing cautiously away in the 
darkness through the tangle of grass, weeds and 
brush which filled the river bottom, until reach- 
ing a point of safety, the writer hurried on to 
camp. 

But a brief period of prospecting was in- 
dulged in in the mountains about Gothic, then 
a wandering on out of the drainage at the head 
of East river and over the range to Rock creek 
beyond. Here upon this stream, high up in 
the range, several little bands were gathered, 



286 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

each endeavoring to attract the attention neces- 
sary to establish a mining camp. 

Soon there came to this isolated region, ru- 
mors of the discovery of fabulous rich a ruby" 
silver ore, by a prospector named Brennan, in 
the mountains twenty miles to the southwest and 
about ten miles west of Crested Butte ; and hur- 
rying back over the range and down the head 
waters of Slate river, camp was made that night 
a few miles westerly from Crested Butte on the 
trail leading to the new find. Breakfast had 
scarce been cooked and eaten the following morn- 
ing, when far away down the trail and through 
the dense timber, came the voice of some one 
evidently battling with stubborn pack animals. 
As they drew nearer and the yells of command 
became clearer, a strange familiarity accompa- 
nied them, yet insufficient for indentification. 

Finally there emerged from the thick timber 
into the little park surrounding camp, closely 
following two pack jacks, and with his rifle 
thrown across his shoulder, the tall, brawny 
form of Bill Halloway. Busily engaged with 
the jacks, who now separated as they entered 
the park in search of the rich grass, Bill gave 
no heed until he was opposite the camp, when, 
looking full upon the writer, he stopped short, 
passed his hand across his eyes as though to 
clear his vision, then exclaimed, "Well I'll be 
d — d, pardner, is that you V 9 For the following 
two hours or more the jacks remained undis- 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 287 

turbed, as with their packs upon their backs 
they wandered about the little park and feasted 
upon its luxurious growths, while Bill and the 
writer sat upon the trunk of a fallen tree at 
the edge of the timber and talked of the times 
in Silver Cliff the winter previous. Talked of 
everything save of that Christmas eve and the 
sombrero affair; for upon his head still rested 
the loved and mutilated heirloom, the secret of 
his insane love for which was now fully revealed, 
yet to refer to it in any direct manner seemed 
as indelicate and unfeeling as reference to the 
fall and dishonor of his nearest of kin. Still 
a condition existed which rendered it imperative 
that the unpleasant memory should be revived, 
and reaching in his pocket the writer drew forth 
and handed to him the Christmas letter from his 
mother found in his bed of pine boughs. He 
stared strangely while the tale of explanation 
was being told, gazed dreamingly for a time at 
the open letter before him, then, placing his 
elbow upon his knee, rested his head upon his 
hand, his face turned away, and thus silently we 
sat there, undisturbed save by the convulsions 
of his frame during each spasmodic inhalation, 
until finally his grief and hatred had subsided 
in a measure, and, raising his head, he looked 
sadly at the Winchester lying across his lap and 
stroked its shining barrel softly, soothingly and 
thoughtfully, as if in mute apology at never yet 
having found warranted employment for it in 
redress of this, his one great wrong. 

19 



288 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

Then, rising from the tree trunk, he strode 
away toward his jacks, and together they disap- 
peared, following np the trail that led to the 
new find. -f- 

In a camp already formed on the shores of 
a small glacial lake near the foot of what was 
known as Ruby peak, a cheery little band of 
hardy prospectors were already gathered. 
Amongst the rest was one Dick Irwin, an old- 
time prospector, from the mining camp of Ro- 
sita. He was a man but little past forty 
years of age, of medium stature, a genial, kindly 
face, courteous and unassuming in manner, and 
though so far as known his career had been 
none other than that of a miner and prospector, 
yet possessed of a speech that was charm- 
ing in its refinement. With these accomplish- 
ments, coupled with a mining experience exceed- 
ing that of any present, it was with little oppo- 
sition agreed to name the new camp after him, 
and hence the mining camp of "Irwin" in Gun- 
nison county, Colorado. 

Irwin had an elevation of over ten thousand 
feet above sea level, while Ruby peak rose to an 
elevation of about thirteen thousand feet. It 
was an ideal pioneer camp during summer 
months, the forests which surrounded it being 
filled with game and the streams with fish, while 
the clear, cold nights of this high elevation 
made sleep refreshing. 

It was known, however, to be located very 
close upon the reservation line, though the 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 289 

107th meridian was in those days and to those 
people a thing of indefinite location. Yet, in 
spite of the insane effort the white man made 
to convince himself that it was still to the west, 
he was possessed of a certain mental reservation 
that it was to the east, which it really was, and 
the Indian knew it even better than he. 

The horses, mules and jacks of the entire 
band of prospectors were having an easy time, 
and mostly joined in one big happy family and 
mnnched the rich wild grass which grew upon 
the hill-sides and kept a good safe distance from 
their respective saddles and pack outfits which 
were stored in camp, save when some frolicsome 
bear, with which the hills were well infested, 
suddenly appeared in their midst, when they 
would scamper wildly for home. E"or did they 
do all the scampering. The writer recollects 
vividly a like experience in the same camp, and 
having exercised pretty much the same inclina- 
tions toward haste as they. 

The day had been spent alone, far up on 
the mountain top above timber line and well 
over toward the drains that led into O-be-Joyful 
gulch. The afternoon was well gone when re- 
turning, the soft mellow light of a setting sun 
shed its rich effulgence upon the luxurious pine 
and spruce bough as the writer hurried down- 
ward toward camp yet a mile or more distant. 

Passing through a thicket of underbrush and 
emerging into a little glade or park where the 



290 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

drain widened, and hearing a slight noise, he 
turned to the right and saw, sitting not ten yards 
distant, a good sized bear, busily engaged in 
tearing to pieces an old rotten log and devour- 
ing the insects he found therein. Instantly he 
ceased his operations and, turning his head, 
looked over his shoulder while an amused ex- 
pression mingled with mild surprise overspread 
his face. Then, rising upon his hind legs, he 
toddled over to where the writer was standing, 
balancing sidewise, backward and forward, and 
circling about, now farther away, then so close 
that his hot breath was plainly felt in the face, 
as with mouth wide open, he grinned good na- 
turedly. As it was, I was wholly unarmed, save 
the pick and shovel carried upon my shoulder 
and which lent a certain dignity as I turned 
around and around in keeping face to the bear. 
Tiring of this, he would throw himself upon 
the ground and roll about, raise upon his 
haunches and sit there and think seriously for 
a while, then he would walk up and sniff about 
my feet, and up along the leg of my overalls to 
about the knee, then back to my feet and 
up along the other leg, while I each time 
involuntarily raised upon my toes in the effort 
to get out of reach. Finally he would 
again raise upon his hind I legs and engage 
in another "all hands round," and I danced 
attentively in each set, while the pick and shovel 
on my shoulder lent a sort of military grace 
to my movements meanwhile. And again I felt 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 



291 



that I was being kidnapped for social purposes, 
and this time by a bear. And although the bear 
was sober, and, so far, good natured, and the 
weather extremely pleasant, I somehow failed to 
fully enter into an appreciation of the atten- 
tion I was receiving, and racked my brain for 







"And I danced attentively in each set." 

some safe method of departure. Then the 
thought occurred of a bear's fondness for sweet 
meats. Down in Denver there had stood upon 
the street corners for a year or more past a 
tall, lank vendor whose constant cry of "Kocky 
Mountain Cough Drops, warranted to cure 



292 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

coughs, colds and sore throat, only ten cents 
a sack," arrested the attention of the passer by ; 
to an occasional one of whom, including the 
writer, he shoveled from a huge pile before him 
into a paper bag the amount required. Having 
caught a slight cold a day or so previous, and 
happening to have a small supply at hand, 
reached in the hip pocket of my overalls, ex- 
tracted one and held it out towards him tempt- 
ingly. He stopped his cavorting about, ambled 
up, sniffed it gingerly, then daintily accepted it 
from my fingers, dropped on all fours, and com- 
menced eating it, looking up sidewise at inter- 
vals to assure himself that it was not a dream, 
and to inquire further if the supply was liable 
to hold out. Finishing this, he again rose to 
his hind feet and presented himself for another 
serving. He was handed the second one, and 
while he chewed away at it, and it stuck to 
his teeth and delayed him, the remaining stock 
was scattered about in the grass in front of 
his nose, where he could not fail to find them, 
yet in such a manner that it would take some 
time to gather them up ; then the start was made 
on the establishment of a time record down that 
mountain, which it is safe to say has never yet 
been beaten ; often since wondering if that bear 
was ever afterward troubled with coughs, colds 
or sore throat. If so, it certainly was no fault 
of the writer. -f- 

The summer was getting fairly well along 
now, and neither Askew, Ramsden or the writer 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLI^GS. 293 

having found anything that appealed in any 
high degree to even our easily satisfied selves, 
and chafing under the restraint of being con- 
fined to this limited and comparatively worthless 
field, when just over the line there to the west 
existed unlimited wealth easily found, we, 
unable longer to withstand the temptation, 
quietly "folded our tents and silently stole 
away." Secretly and cautiously we made 
our arrangements and departed from camp 
in an opposite direction, that no one see- 
ing us might divine our mission. Not 
even that old friend and partner, Bill Hal- 
loway was permitted to become aware of this, 
though Bill had suggested it for some time 
past, but it was really too good and sure a thing 
to take any chances with. For Bill, though he 
meant well, was ungovernable in his indiscre- 
tions and yelled at his jacks so loudly as to 
be liable to attract the attention of an Indian 
several miles distant, and so any feelings of in- 
justice toward him were excused through a 
sincere resolution to stake him in. Cautiously 
we felt our way by easy stages down Anthracite 
creek (a tributary of the north fork of the Gun- 
nison) until Mt. Marcellena had been rounded. 
At about this point it became easy to note 
unfavorable Indian signs. From the high points 
it was discovered that forest fires were starting 
in all the higher country, and but a few days 
elapsed until that portion already traversed 
well back up to the camp of Irwin, was a cloud 



294 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

of smoke by day and lurid from the light of 
names by night. 

It had been well known ever since the mining 
camp was first established that the Ute claimed 
it to be upon his territory, and had always 
regarded it with a frown, hence, in view of all 
this inexplicable demonstration, it was deemed 
advisable to move with caution and observe the 
strictest regulations regarding maneuvers, and 
to this end, avoiding all Indian trails, we kept 
well in the high country (which incidentally was 
the choicest locality for mineral discoveries) and 
after each evening meal moved camp to some 
remote spot, that a lurking Indian, noting the 
smoke from the camp fire, would in his at- 
tempted midnight surprise, find it vacant. 

And thus for days maneuvering about in the 
very roughest and most unfrequented portions of 
these then wilds, the evidences of Indian out- 
break each day grew more and more manifest, 
until finally it was evident that we were sur- 
rounded by Indians; the country on each 
side being literally alive with them, en- 
gaged in practices so uncommon as to cause 
alarm. Hidden away in the most inacces^ 
sible and unfrequented parts, they yet, at 
times, approached so closely that at night 
the singing and yelling about their camp 
fires could be plainly heard as we lay in 
concealment high up in the mountains above 
them. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 295 

Finally it was decided to abandon this game 
of hide and seek, as well as the undertaking 
altogether, and leave the reservation, but in out- 
lining a method it was soon discevered that this 
was no easy thing to do, with the intervening 
country well on fire and more or less infested 
with Indians, as evidenced from the sounds 
of continuous shooting which came from this 
direction, as they evidently through the medium 
of this and the forest fires sought to drive the 
game from the higher country, which bordered 
the now encroached upon reservation on the 
east, into the lower portions and the heart of 
their land further to the west. However, no 
time was lost in the attempt, and we toiled 
stealthily and unceasingly along as high up 
on the mountain sides as possible and not 
become exposed in the naked areas above 
timber line. Progress was necessarily slow, 
yet the second day of retreat had passed 
otherwise successfully and without appar- 
rent detection, and supper had been cooked 
and eaten by a little camp fire no larger than 
a pocket handkerchief and deep down amongst 
the rocks, that the wily foe might not detect its 
smoke, and camp had been removed several hun- 
dred yards distant, and the animals gathered in 
a choice hiding place, where, smoking our pipes 
and congratulating ourselves upon the headway 
being made, the sharp crack of a rifle not two 
hundred yards distant and below in the timber 
suddenly altered impressions and brought each 



296 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

to our feet. Evidently an Indian had discovered 
the camp and this was a signal shot to the 
balance of the hand. Acting upon this im- 
pression, we seized our guns, together with a 
blanket each, and leaving the balance of the 
equipage together with the animals where they 
were, sought safety in abandoning the camp 
apparently discovered, and taking possession in- 
dividually of still another place of concealment 
not far removed. Here we lay and watched 
and shivered with the cold during the long night, 
and waited for the attack which failed to come. 
Daylight dawned at last, and still it was 
feared to return and take possession of the out- 
fit, through suspicion that discovering our 
individual absence they were lurking about in 
the rocks and thickets awaiting an appearance. 
The sun was now far up above the eastern hor- 
izon ere the belief had been overcome to an 
extent wherein possession of the outfit was re- 
covered and we were again under way. 

Another day of wandering and successful 
evasion of the foe when, during the forenoon 
of the day following, a point was reached so near 
the eastern border that in view of the success 
so far met with, coupled with the belief that we 
were now outside Indian occupation, together 
with the further fact of being well worn out with 
climbing over rocks, through fallen timber, and 
along precipitous mountain sides, it was de- 
termined to descend into lower country and 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 297 

intercept some Indian trail leading to the east. 
It was near the middle of the forenoon when, 
striking a well defined trail, it was followed east- 
ward at a rapid gait up the drain which it led. 
Soon it left the bottom and began a gradual 
ascent through heavy timber, of the mountain 
side to the south. From the time of entering 
it the writer's saddle animal had manifested 
uneasiness, hurrying forward, champing the bit 
and otherwise fretting, when leaning forward in 
the saddle and looking downward, first over one 
shoulder and then the other to detect the pres- 
ence of a horse fly, his eyes rested upon the 
trail and a myriad of pony tracks therein, all 
leading in the same direction in which we were 
traveling. Ramsden and Askew were in the rear 
following the two pack mules. Hurrying on 
without calling their attention to the matter, and 
watching sharply for signs ahead, there soon 
reached the ear a faint sound at first attributed 
to the sighing of the wind through the tree 
tops. Little by little it became more distinct, 
until the ding dong of a cow bell was unmis- 
takable. Deciding finally that it was the animal 
of some prowling prospector like ourselves, we 
rode on. Still the pony tracks in the trail fur- 
nished a source of unrest. The tones of the bell 
came clearer and clearer through the dense for- 
est, and seemed to come from far below, down 
the steep mountain side. But, a short distance 
further on and glancing to the left through the 
heavy timber, and in a little glade in the drain 



298 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

below there was seen flitting about a myriad of 
bright colored blankets, each covering the form 
of a husky Ute. Turning quickly in the saddle 
and calling in a whisper to Ramsden, who was 
riding next behind the packs: "Injuns, Percy, 
cut 'em loose," he rushed upon the rear pack 
mule and jerking a blacksnake whip from the 
horn of his saddle, dealt him a blow. The mule 
made a sudden bound and jumped out from 
under the pack upon his back. Now an excite- 
ment prevailed, which, though silent, was in- 
tense. Jumping from our saddle animals, the 
writer dropped the bridle reins of his saddle 
animal upon the ground, leaned his Sharp's 
rifle against a tree and hastened to assist in 
repacking the mule. This quickly accom- 
plished, he turned to find his saddle horse had 
fled up the trail and was now no where in sight 
It was quickly arranged that his two companions 
should push on with the packs, overtake the 
saddle horse as quickly as possible, when one of 
them should return with it, while he meanwhile 
would make the best time possible on foot. In 
excitement he rushed forward a hundred yards 
or more, then discovered that he had forgotten 
the rifle by the tree, and rushed back to its re- 
covery. Through all movements so far we had 
remained undiscovered by the Indians; when 
seizing the rifle and turning to run, an Indian 
far down in the park below, detecting the act, 
gave a yell calling the attention of his compan- 
ions. From the run made forward and back 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 299 

again to recover the rifle, the writer was now well 
exhausted, and quickly figuring out the only 
chances of escape. They could not rapidly climb 
the mountain to the trail above, it was true, 
yet it was all the same in the end unless the 
boys came to the rescue with that saddle horse. 
Meanwhile, in hastening on to meet them, pro^ 
tection must be had from becoming a target 
for their rifle balls. Only twice, as stumbling 
forward through the timber was an exposure 
made, and to which attention was quickly called 
by the sharp crack of a rifle below and a whistle 
of the ball as it passed nearby. Soon rounding 
a point of the mountain, one was for the time 
well out of range, and now the trail became 
more level and soon left the timber as it sought 
to regain the creek bed, which it had left and 
climbed by easy grade along the mountain side 
to avoid a steep, rocky and impassable section 
above, where the Indians were encamped. 
Stumbling forward, utterly exhausted, and at 
times falling, with no sign of the returning 
saddle horse, the last remaining hope was to 
reach the creek bed in the trail ahead, where a 
dense growth of willows filled the gulch, and 
possibly thereby prolong briefly the search, and 
life meanwhile, for the Indians had saddled up 
and were fast climbing the mountain side, yel- 
ling with glee at the triumph awaiting them. 

Staggering onward and at last reaching the 
willows, the writer fell forward into their pro- 
tecting fastnesses, for a time unable to rise, then 



300 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

staggering to his feet as there came a loud crash 
from the opposite bank, a violent commotion of 
the willows, and two horses with a single rider 
tore past ere they could stop. It was Askew, 
who, as the writer caught the horn of the saddle, 
too weak to mount, reached across the animal's 
back and, seizing his collar, dragged him into 
the seat; then turning we tore back through 
the willows and up the trail in a wild and reck- 
less race for life. A half mile or more up the 
steep grades, and our saddle animals were felt 
weakening beneath us, as, reeling, their pace 
slackened and they struggled violently for 
breath. Then a savage yell came from far down 
the drain, and turning in our saddles, we saw 
a band of Indians (who had at last reached the 
trail above) emerge from the timber with horses 
evidently as exhausted as our own, and halting, 
they held a pow-wow, as they saw their prey 
mounted and well out of rifle range, far up the 
trail. Then abandoning further pursuit, they 
wheeled about and trotted sullenlv back into 
the forest from which they had emerged. 

And now, riding into Irwin a half hour later, 
what, situated in the camp's very center, was 
the strange structure that greeted the sight? 
Logs from six to twelve inches in diameter and 
about fifteen feet in height were standing in 
the ground close beside each other and forming 
a great circle fifty feet or more in diameter, 
while, from the wild-eyed and scanty populace 
huddled in groups it was soon learned that this 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 301 

-was a stronghold which hereafter one had best 
not stray too far from; that the Utes were on 
the war path ; that already they had massacred 
the entire white population at the agency on 
White river, including Meeker, the Government 
agent, and had then gone north and inter- 
cepted and ambushed the force of troops from 
Fort Steele, under command of the writer's 
friend, Major Thornburg, who were coming to 
the relief of the agency, and had killed Thorn- 
burg, together with twenty-two soldiers and one 
hundred and seventy-five head of mules. Fur- 
ther, that scouts reported large forces of warriors 
now approaching from the north and west, mov- 
ing upon the Camps of Irwin, Crested Butte, 
Gothic and Gunnison City. 

All that night we remained awake in the log 
fort at Irwin, and the following morning sud- 
denly discovered that we were out of certain 
supplies, which could not be obtained at a point 
nearer east than Crested Butte. Moreover, 
since learning the true state of affairs, a feeling 
overcame us that possibly Irwin was a little 
over on the reservation, and if so it wasn't at 
all the right thing to remain there and be a party 
to such unjust proceedings, and so, overcome 
with this sudden revolution of sentiment, and 
weighed down with our so recently acquired 
principles and sense of justice in the matter, and 
further influenced to some slight degree through 
our lack of faith in the utter impregnability 
of Fort Irwin, together with the scanty and 



302 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

somewhat demoralized force remaining to pro- 
tect it, we packed up and moved on down to 
Crested Butte on Slate river. 

Reaching the Butte in safety, there was 
found here greater consternation than at Irwin. 
The news of the massacre and imminent attack 
upon all the bordering camps had crept through- 
out the wilds, and the unprotected denizens of 
every gulch round about had already found their 
way to Crested Butte or Gothic, or with greater 
discretion had passed on down the river to Gun- 
nison City. Even old Yank Baxter had evacu- 
ated his stronghold in Poverty gulch, and was 
prancing up and down the only street of the 
town, stopping to take a drink each time he 
passed Burns' saloon, and loudly assuring each 
one he met that he "didn't leave till the Injuns 
smoked him out and he had shot the last 'cat- 
ridge' into 'em he had left," all of which was 
accepted in the general excitement as true. 
Later evidence, however, went to show that 
there hadn't been an Indian within five miles 
of Poverty gulch. 

The greater part of the comparatively few 
women and children had sought greater safety by 
migrating down the river, while a surprisingly 
large detachment of men had found a convenient 
excuse to accompany and protect them. The bal- 
ance that remained, armed with such weapons as 
existed, and fortified with generous amounts of 
Burns' whiskey, constituted the sole defense. As 
night approached and additional wild reports 



EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 



303 



came in, the fortification was added to until in 
the darkness as between the large percentage of 
excited, frightened, half drunken white defend- 
ers and the murderous Utes there was little to 
choose. 

The self -constituted commandant of the gar- 
rison was a charac- 
ter who had ap- 
peared in the 
Butte with the ear- 
ly arrivals and who 
passed generally 
under the nom de 
plume of "Arkin- 
saw." 1ST o one 
seemed to know his 
other name, his 
previous record, or 
from whence he 
came, while a cer- ,'. 
tain atmosphere of . , 
stern reticence and^; 
uncertain disposi- T 
tion, attended at \ 
all times by a pair 
of formidable six 
shooters (one at 

each hip), tended to discourage too much inquis- 
itiveness. He was naturally sullen and morose, 
and, drunk or sober, engaged in very little con- 
versation with any one. However, when he at 

times started in looking for trouble, it required 
20 




1 



v 



'Arkinsaw" looking for trouble. 



304 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

no lengthy promulgation of his views to convince 
the older residents that he was in earnest. He 
was a man of about fifty years of age, of medium 
height, strongly built, with heavy hair and beard 
and stern visaged. For two or three days fol- 
lowing our arrival the excitement increased 
rather than abated. Finally it was agreed, and 
a subscription made (evidently without con- 
sulting Arkinsaw, who was never known to have 
a cent, or pay if he did have it) for the pur- 
pose of sending a messenger to Leadville, some 
one hundred miles through a wild and broken 
country, for arms and assistance, while to this 
end the writer was chosen to make the trip, the 
start to be made after nightfall that the chances 
of capture might be lessened, when by daylight 
a point would be reached far enough to the east 
to be well outside of the enemy's lines. Finish- 
ing supper and preparing a midnight lunch, he 
crossed the street to Burns' saloon, where all 
important public gatherings met, and where 
a contribution to defray the expenses of the 
trip was on deposit. Standing at the bar while 
Burns counted out the fund, the transaction was 
interrupted by Arkinsaw who, entering, strode 
forward, and leaning across the bar, rudely, and 
in violent tones entered his protest against the 
whole proceeding. Irritated beyond further 
endurance, the writer turned slightly toward 
him and remarked, "What particular business 
of yours is this, anyhow, Arkinsaw?" Then 
resuming the conversation with Burns, some- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 305 

thing cold touched his neck just below the ear, 
while a voice remarked, "It's a heap of my busi- 
ness, young feller ; see ? Now dig up that coin 
youVe got there and chuck it right back over the 
bar 'fore I blow the whole top o' yer head off." 
Slowly, yet obediently, the writer's hands went 
down deep in his trousers pockets and raked 
forth the last coin he had received, while fearing 
to move his head an inch, he turned his eyes 
apologetically toward him and remarked, "I beg 
your pardon, Mr. Arkinsaw, I was only joking, 
upon my word and honor I didn't mean any- 
thing personal Mr. Arkinsaw." "Well, I do," 
remarked the blood-thirsty old pirate, "and 
now you trot home, sonny, and git your gun 
if you want to argue this matter any further 
with me, and be careful I don't ketch sight uv 
ye first." After a brief discussion, Arkinsaw's 
views were, as usual, adopted, and the writer's 
fully aranged-for Paul Revere notoriety came 
suddenly to an end. 

Gradually the Indian scare in the border 
mining camps subsided, yet further and more 
detailed and authentic information from the 
Indian country proved conclusively that the first 
horrible information relative to the massacre of 
troops and agency attaches was only too true, 
and in addition to which it was now known 
that several women present (amongst others 
Miss Josephine Meeker, a daughter of the 
agent), though not murdered, were captured and 
yet in the hands of the savages. Henceforth 



306 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

there were no more raids into Indian territory, 
on the part of prospectors; and aside from the 
camp of Irwin, already established, most oper- 
ations were conducted at a point safely east of 
any probable location of the 107th meridian. 

Winter came at last, and with no holdings 
worthy of preparation for winter operation, we 
drifted with the first wintry blast and its ac- 
companying snow, back over the mountains to 
the east and away to that mecca of all Colorado 
miners and prospectors, Denver. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The season of 1878 had closed the career of 
that eminent, sincere, geological genius, Dr. 
Ferdinand Vandeveer Hayden, who had spent 
more than a quarter of a century of the very best 
of his life in unceasing, unselfish, invaluable 
and arduous service for the Government of the 
United States in the exploration and determin- 
ation of the economic resources of the vast re- 
gion lying west of the Mississippi, and which 
in greater part was, during the first half at least 
of his labors a trackless waste aside from the 
pathway of the wily Indian and the untamed 
beast. And the operations of the survey were 
now conducted under the directorship of Clar- 
ence King, under whom Major Clark was in 
charge of the division of the "Great Basin" 
with headquarters at Eureka, Nevada, where 
the writer now resumed service in the survey. 

The Great Basin, so-called, embraces east- 
erly and westerly the vast area lying between 
the Wasatch mountains on its eastern and the 
Sierra Nevadas on its western border. A pe- 
culiarity of the floor of this great enclosure 
being that it displays a generally true and 
marked convexity of surface along its east and 
west section, some 400 miles in length, starting 
from an elevation of about 4500 feet at the base 



308 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

of the Wasatch range, and in the vicinity of Salt 
Lake City, rising gradually to a mean elevation 
of from 6500 to 7000 feet in its central portion 
and descending as gradually to a like elevation 
with the point of commencement, in its western 
terminus at the foot of the Sierras in the vicin- 
ity of Carson City, Nevada. 

Thethengreat mining camp of Eureka, being 
situated very nearly midway between the ter- 
minal points of the line mentioned, as a result 
rested upon the highest elevation of the great 
vertical curve, although surrounded by local 
elevations which reach some distance above it 
in the form of broken hills and fragmentary 
ranges. 

About two miles to the west of the town in 
an eminence known as Ruby hill existed one of 
the greatest precious metal ore occurrences the 
world has ever seen. Though other minor dis- 
coveries in the neighborhood were made as early 
as 1864, the ores of this particular hill remained 
unnoticed or received no attention until late in 
1868, when work was commenced and enough 
information finally gained, that in 1870 or there- 
abouts, two great companies were formed, the 
Eureka Consolidated with San Francisco cap- 
ital and the Richmond Consolidated by a Lon- 
don syndicate, each with reduction works of 
their own. Then rapidly followed the organiza- 
tion and operations of numerous minor compa- 
nies upon the hill and in the district surround- 
ing, several of which followed the example of 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 309 

their two predecessors and built other furnaces 
for the private treatment of their ores until final- 
ly the deep gulch in which the town was located 
was clogged with a dense bank of smoke and 
filled with fumes infernal, out of which ema- 
nated finally a production of nearly one hun- 
dred and fifty millions of dollars in gold, silver 
and lead bullion. 

The formation of Ruby hill in which this 
great ore body occurred was made up originally 
of successive sheets of sedimentary rocks, in all 
nine or more in number, and some of which 
were a thousand feet and more in thickness, 
the whole having at some time been uplifted 
at this point through the forces accompanying 
eruptive action, into a great anticlinal fold, 
forming Ruby hill. Following this the hill or 
fold had fissured or split open, as it were, to 
great depths, along its northeast face and par- 
allel to its axis. Then, one of these parts was 
pushed up or the other subsided, or both, until 
the corresponding ends of these sheets assumed 
a displacement of over 1200 feet at points along 
the big crack or fissure, and through which dis- 
placement of the parts it now became what is 
known as a "fault." 

The order of the four lower sheets begin- 
ning at the bottom were, first, a quartzite of 
indefinite, though great thickness, resting upon 
the granites ; second, seven hundred feet of lime- 
stone; third, somewhat less than this of shale; 
fourth, a second bed of limestone of the same 



310 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

character and of about the same depth as the 
first. 

These four lower sheets were of the oldest 
sedimentary rocks known. The earliest sedi- 
ments laid down upon the surface of the gran- 
ite and known as "Cambrian." They were the 
foundation rocks of the Paleozoic era, and though 
originally covered by other beds aggregating 
thousands of feet in thickness, were now (due 
to erosion) practically the only rocks appearing 
upon the surface of Ruby hill. 

This great fissure was not truly vertical, but 
in its course downward had a dip or inclination 
from the vertical of about twenty degrees. The 
entire formation on the under or foot wall 
side of this fissure had been pushed up, or the 
opposite side had subsided as the case may be, 
until the lower or first mentioned formation of 
limestone now in places coincided quite closely 
with the second mentioned formation of the 
same material, some 1200 feet above, while at 
other points it reached much higher than this. 

Erosion then, during the countless centuries 
which followed, carved away at the summit of the 
great fractured fold, until now, of all the form- 
ations of sedimentary rock which once clothed 
the hill nothing remained above the lowermost 
or quartzite formation to cover the uplifted por- 
tion, save a long, irregular fragment of the lower 
lime brought up from a thousand and more feet 
below. In cross section the form of this frag- 
ment of lime was roughly that of a scaline tri- 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 311 

angle with one face resting against the great 
faulted fissure, and its most acute angle pointing- 
downward along the line of same. 

This remaining ledge of limestone had, 
through the grinding effect attending its upward 
movement, become profusely fractured through- 
out, while much of it was finely crushed, and 
the whole thus prepared to receive through per- 
colation and substitution the vast bodies of 
precious metal bearing ores that were later 
herein found. By just what method these ore 
bodies were deposited, there remains no positive 
evidence. It seems most probable, however, that 
the dynamical action which uplifted the great 
sedimentary beds created innumerable other frac- 
tures aside from the Euby hill fissure found 
so directly connected with these ore bodies and 
so enormously faulted. 

As a product of this dynamical action, there 
appears in the immediate vicinity large areas of 
eruptive matter (porphyry and ryholite) the 
deposition of which was certainly attended by 
great heat, gases, vapors and superheated waters 
which, laden with mineral matter in solution, 
circulated most freely along planes of least re- 
sistance, such as bedding planes and fractures, 
and ascending along the great Ruby hill fault 
fissure, as at least one channel, came finally in 
contact with the crushed and unresisting lime, 
and permeating the broken and pulverized mass, 
deposited little by little of its burden of iron, 
lead, gold, silver, silica, etc., etc., which con- 



312 KEMLNISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

stituted the ore proper ; not, however, impregnat- 
ing the entire mass, as seemingly a wise prov- 
idence thoroughly understood that such a method 
of deposition would render the whole of far too 
low a grade for successful operation by creatures 
of the earth destined to follow, who would make 
the discovery and assume the undertaking ; and 
thus it came, that these values, through some law 
of inorganic affinity imperfectly understood, 
were concentrated at irregular points and in 
irregular bodies throughout the field; usually 
in caves, either pre-existing or created through 
the process of ore deposition. Most of the 
greater ore bodies were found deposited upon 
the floor of great caves in the lime and only 
partially filling the same, a phenomena some- 
what difficult to explain. Certainly it was not 
due to infiltration or leaching, as no trace of 
stalagmites or stalactites other than those of 
calcium carbonate were found. Again, if due 
to substitution, and the circulating solutions 
deposited an atom of their metalliferous burden 
in replacement of the atom lime rock which they 
in turn converted into solution, then why was 
not the replacement complete, and the cave full ? 
However, these ores unquestionably presented a 
far different structure immediately following 
their deposition than when later discovered by 
man. They must originally have been deposited 
in primary form as sulphides; when found, 
however, they were in an almost perfect state 
of oxidization. This metamorphism, it is quite 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 313 

possible and even probable, diminished their 
volume. To whatever extent this occurred, the 
mass naturally settled away from the roof and 
left the open chamber found. 

Were the deposits made in caves already 
formed, and upon which these ore bearing solu- 
tions and vapors through lack of carbonic acid 
had no further effect, the deposit would be made 
equally upon all exposed portions of the recep- 
tacle, when in case of a complete filling the re- 
sult would be identical with that filled by sub- 
stitution, and in case of an incomplete filling 
or the existence of a central vacuity, the appar- 
ent shrinkage through oxidization would be cor- 
respondingly increased. 

The early operation of these properties near 
the surface and in the big end of the wedge 
indicated a field of startling magnitude. Soon, 
however, development at greater depth presented 
unmistakable evidence that the longitudinal 
boundary planes of this bonanza converged rap- 
idly in their course downward, until finally con- 
tinued delving after its wealth terminated not 
exactly at the "little end of the horn," but more 
precisely at the lower and sharper point of the 
wedge or triangle, one fourth of a mile or there- 
abouts below the surface. 

The winter of '79 and '80 found the camp 
but little past the zenith of its glory and produc- 
tion. Eureka, with a population of ten thousand 
people and its single business street, following 



314 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

the bed of the gulch, up and down which all 
day long huge freight and charcoal wagons, 
drawn by long strings of mules, each thirty or 
forty in number, filed slowly and in endless pro- 
cession until nightfall, when seemingly half the 
population, added to by nightly delegations from 
the town of Ruby Hill up at the mines two miles 
distant, thronged the brilliantly lighted and 
noisy thoroughfare, until passage was only pos- 
sible through the middle of the street. 

From the little narrow-gauge railway line 
which had its terminus here, freight and passen- 
gers were transported to such points in the great 
desert beyond as Hamilton, Ely, Tybo, and so 
far south as Pioche ; from here daily, long lines 
of freight teams started upon their dreary, toil- 
some march — such freighting as the world has 
never seen outside of this very desert and its 
bordering range, the Sierra Nevadas. 

For more than fifty miles at a stretch in 
various sections of the routes traveled, no sign 
of habitation was met with save the hut of the 
stock-tender, and the adobe stables for the mules 
at the regular stations where night was passed 
and water was secured to fill the casks slung 
each side of the ponderous freight wagons, with 
which to slake the thirst of the toiling mules 
until the next water hole or station was reached. 

Each of these freighting outfits was com- 
posed of from three to five monstrous wagons, 
connected in a train like railway cars, and all 
of which, except the front wagon or that to 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 315 

which the mules were hitched, were known as 
"trails" and were dropped at the foot of heavy 
grades and hauled up separately and recon- 
nected at the summit. 

These wagons were built largely at Carson 
City, Nevada, which point enjoyed as great a 
reputation for the manufacture of this class of 
conveyance as Concord, New Hampshire, did 
for stage coaches. The hubs of many of these 
wagons were each fully the size of a flour barrel. 
Each wagon had a capacity of from ten to fifteen 
tons. The mules employed were from sixteen 
to forty according to the weight of the load, con- 
dition of road, etc. 

The whole was managed by a single driver, 
who, riding one of the wheel mules, guided the 
balance by a "jerk" line, at the same time oper- 
ating the brakes through another line attached 
to a long lever. 

In such a manner and upon such scale was 
freight handled between the Rocky mountains 
and the Pacific coast and from the borders of 
Mexico to British Columbia only. Throughout 
the Rocky mountains and east thereof, in fact, 
throughout the world, in so far as the writer's 
information extends, no such freighting has ever 
been engaged in, wherein, as in an instance actu- 
ally witnessed, a load of sixty-five tons left 
Winnemucca, Nevada, in the spring of 1880, 
handled by a single driver, and destined through 
a long, weary journey over mountain and plain 



316 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

for final delivery at Boise City, and other points 
in Idaho. 

The field work of the survey had embraced 
an area of about twenty miles square, or 400 
square miles, in which the Ruby hill deposit 
occurred near the center of its northern half. 

This entire area was contoured at fifty feet 
vertical intervals, while a general geological ex- 
amination of the whole, embodying a more de- 
tailed examination of the small section embrac- 
ing the ore deposits, followed. 

A blanket of snow, accompanied by a low 
temperature incident to this elevation and lati- 
tude, had now shrouded the region round about. 
Field work had been abandoned, and in fur- 
nished quarters rented for the winter, the force 
were now cosily ensconced and busily engaged 
in compiling the data obtained during the sum- 
mer preceding; making an occasional trip 
through the deep snow to some distant point to 
obtain information overlooked, or to check some 
condition which, through its apparent inconsis- 
tency, seemed an error. Then, underground, 
deep down in the workings of the Eureka Consol- 
idated, Richmond and other great mines, climb- 
ing about with flickering lights through passages 
and caverns, like gnomes in the under world, in 
search of truths to present to those who dwelt 
in the light of day. 

Fourteen hundred and more feet down in 
the bowels of the earth, hundreds of miners were 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 317 

here engaged, scattered through miles upon 
miles of winzes, drifts, and upraises, and 
perched in countless numbers high up on breasts 
of ore, or in the roofs of stopes, their positions 
denoted only by the faint flare of a candle car- 
ried by each, and whose feeble rays lighted but 
dimly a small radius round about in the Plutonic 
darkness everywhere. 

Whole forests of the best timber from along 
the Pacific coast in Oregon and Washington were 
already interred in the workings of these mines, 
for the purpose of sustaining the mountain above 
them and protecting the workmen while engaged 
in extracting the ore bodies. 

As an evidence of the enormous weight to be 
sustained, there might be seen in the lower work- 
ings of these mines, timbers, originally sixteen 
inches square, which had been compressed to a 
thickness of four inches and less, so solidified 
that the destructive effect upon an edged tool was 
almost equal to that of a bar of railway iron. 

As heretofore stated, the entire and enor- 
mous tonnage of ore produced was treated by 
smelting upon the ground. Par removed from 
coal supply, and with ninety miles of wagon 
haul across the desert during a period covering- 
early operations, necessity compelled the intro- 
duction of some cheaper fuel. Indigenous to 
the soil and climate of this desert region, there 
grew upon the smaller hills, in the gulches and 
upon the slopes of the fragmentary ranges 



318 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

round about, a more or less dense growth of 
"mountain mahogany." Though beautiful in 
color and texture, intensely hard and to all 
appearance a perfect mahogany, its growth was 
so dwarfed as to render it simply a giant shrub 
and unfit for any commercial uses, other than as 
a fuel. And thus nature had provided crude 
facilities for pioneer operations preceding in- 
dustrial advancement not yet acquired. This 
mahogany, at the close of operations, had been 
cut and converted into charcoal over an area 
represented by a radius of at least twenty miles, 
drawn from the town of Eureka. 

A still more striking illustration of the force 
of necessity along this line is given at Tusca- 
rora, in the northern portion of Nevada, and 
a camp of even earlier date than Eureka. Here 
the ores were of a milling in place of a smelt- 
ing nature, and must of necessity be treated 
upon the ground. Yet here even the dwarfed 
mahogany did not occur; but in its stead the 
great arid valley, embracing hundreds of square 
miles in area, upon whose borders the camp 
occurred, was one dense forest of giant sage, 
the trunks of which were as large as a man's 
arm. The growth was possessed of a high calo- 
rific, through an inflammable oil which it con- 
tained, and although it burned rapidly, the 
forest of this material which covered the val- 
ley was so dense, and of so great an area that 
a million tons of ore or more was reduced 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 319 

here, through the agency of this energy-creating 
substance. 

While incidentally and briefly referring to 
such as we have of the ore deposits of this 
most remarkable precious metal producing state, 
it would appear most inconsistent to pass un- 
mentioned that most wonderful occurrence of 
its kind, which as yet has ever been disclosed 
to humankind in the entire world, viz: the 
Comstock lode, which lies at a point in Storey 
county, about twenty miles easterly from the 
foot of the eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada 
range; more definitely it is located in a small 
spur or offshoot of said range, and more def- 
initely still, at the foot of a prominent peak 
in this spur range known as Mount Davidson. 

Gold was first discovered in Nevada in the 
spring of 1850, in what is now known as Gold 
canyon, by William Prouse, one of a party of 
Mormons who were en route to California. 
Although the gravel which they found here 
would, under ordinary circumstances, have been 
regarded as rich, yet the excitement over the 
fabulous wealth of California diggings was 
so great as to make this appear insignificant, 
and most of them, after a short stay, passed 
on over the Sierras. Little was done here dur- 
ing this year, owing to the insane rush to 
California, wherein, during the summer, over 
60,000 emigrants crossed the desert, stripping 

every oasis in their way until barren as a 
21 



320 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Kansas cornfield after the grasshopper plague. 
Flour in the valley of the Carson and at the 
sinks of the Humboldt reached a price of $2.50 
per pound, and it is related that the little band 
in the canyon, influenced by hunger, became 
highwaymen, and attacked wagon trains of 
provisions in their passage westward through 
the country. -f- 

By Act of Congress, approved September 
9th, 1850, the territory of Utah had been estab- 
lished, and its assembly passed an act Jan- 
uary 17th, 1854, organizing the county of Car- 
son, described by metes and bounds, which in- 
cluded an immense area. Brigham Young was 
territorial governor, and being empowered by 
the same act, appointed Orson Hyde, one of the 
elders of the Mormon church, as probate judge 
of the new county, who having authority to act 
in both civil and criminal cases, exercised the 
first local government amongst the new comers. 

During the severest months of winter, the 
little band in Gold canyon, together with those 
in the Carson valley, had no possibility of com- 
munication with the outside world save from 
the settlement of Placerville on the western 
slope of the Sierra Nevadas, and this alone 
through the marvelous strength and endurance 
of John A. Thompson, a stalwart Norwegian, 
who made the trip regularly and alone, pack- 
ing on his back from 50 to 100 pounds of 
freight. These trips of a hundred miles from 
Placerville to the Carson valley, more than half 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 321 

the distance being through the pine forests 
of the Sierras and over a field of snow of from 
ten to twenty feet in depth, he accomplished in 
from two to three days. 

During the summer of 1854, two brothers, 
Ethan Allen and Hosea Ballon Grosh from 
Pennsylvania, spent much time in the hills about 
Gold canyon prospecting for silver leads, and 
particularly upon the canyon slope of Mount 
Davidson, then called by the gulch miners Sun 
peak, and from 'letters written by them, it 
appears certain that they had noted what was 
afterward known as the Comstock ledge. And 
here without funds, save what they washed 
from the sands of the canyon below, they toiled 
and struggled on in this remote, uninhabited and 
desolate location until the spring of 1857, when 
the brother Hosea, wounding his foot with 
the pick which he was weilding, died but a few 
days later for want of proper treatment. 

Stricken with misfortune, the remaining 
brother, Ethan, together with a companion 
named Burke, set out late in November for 
California. In crossing the Sierras, they en- 
countered a terrible snow storm near Lake 
Tahoe. A few days later a second storm ob- 
literated the trail, and the great depth of snow 
now attained, together with the extreme cold, 
rendered travel almost impossible. Still they 
struggled on, killing and eating the burro which 
accompanied them, as* he could no longer make 



322 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

his way through the deep snow. Finally, in 
terrible condition, they crawled to the hut of a 
lone placer miner on the Middle Fork of 
American river, where Ethan in a few days 
died from the effect of his sufferings, while 
Burke was so badly frozen that amputation of 
both feet being necessary, the operation was 
crudely yet successfully performed by the pros- 
pector host, who removed them by un jointing at 
the ankles. Thus ended the first attempt at 
locating that greatest of all bonanzas, the Corn- 
stock lode. 

In February of the year following the death 
of Grosh, a character known down in the placer 
camp in Gold canyon as a 01d Virginny," (a 
native of the state of Virginia, and whose true 
name was James Finney) in wandering over 
the hills bordering the canyon, noticed the out- 
crop of some peculiar looking rock on the north- 
eastern face of Sun peak, and at once made 
a vague and indefinite location of the same. 
Later in the year, the diggings down in the 
canyon becoming poor, others were induced to 
give attention to the rock up and along the face 
of the peak. And though the location made by 
Finney was absolutely invalid, no devolopment 
whatever having been done, for though a resi- 
dent of the canyon since 1851, work was an act 
of which "Old Virginny" had never yet been 
guilty. Still his location was respected and the 
name "Virginia" given it in honor of the dis- 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 323 

coverer. Late in the year, Finney, together 
with two or three others, began prospecting a 
large monnd-shaped mass of disintegrated ma- 
terial lying about a mile south of Finney's orig- 
inal location. This proved to be fairly rich in 
gold, and they made other locations thereon. 
Immediately thereafter five other prospectors 
(the name of one of whom was Henry Corn- 
stock) came to the mound and took up a single 
claim, and the new camp w r as given the name 
of Gold Hill. Work now actuallly began at 
this point in April, 1859. Meanwhile the placer 
mining down in the canyon had been carried 
upward to its head, and two of these miners, 
Patrick McLaughlin and Peter O'Riley, began 
trenching up the face of Sun peak in the hope 
to find a little dirt rich enough to pack down 
in the canyon and wash. 

At one point a little water trickled from 
the face of the mountain, and thinking to avail 
themselves of this, they dug a hole in the earth 
close by as a reservoir. The earth thus ex- 
tracted, being of a peculiar color, they washed 
a small amount and discovered it to be fabu- 
lously rich in gold. It was in fact the decom- 
posed apex of the great lode at still another 
point. 

Ceaselessly and silently they toiled, and with 
even the crude appliances they possessed, were 
rapidly gaining a fortune, when the party Corn- 
stock referred to, (who was a worthless, shiftless 
fellow, ever prying about to gain some advan- 



324 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

tage through the labor and discovery of others) 
in roaming about the hills one day and stop- 
ping at the little camp of McLaughlin and 
O'Riley, soon discovered their secret, and in- 
stantly began conjuring a scheme to rob them of 
a portion at least of their find. Coolly and un- 
blushingly, he informed them that he had some 
time since located a ranch of 160 acres, the 
boundaries of which included the ground they 
were working. In addition to this, he claimed 
the water which they were using, as having 
purchased it from a mythical locator a long time 
previous. 

Intimidated by these fraudulent assertions, 
and rather than have trouble, McLaughlin and 
O'Riley foolishly conveyed to the impostor 100 
feet in length along the line of their rich outcrop. 

Comstock with associates now set to work 
and quietly and vaguely located 1500 feet along 
this northerly portion of the great ledge, and 
being a loud-mouthed, self-styled leader and 
authority, became through this, and his ques- 
tionably obtained yet extensive holdings, prom- 
inent in the camp ; and thus the great ledge, by 
fraud and loud pretense, came in its early and 
unimportant stage and ever after to bear the 
name of this worthless, dishonest vagabond, who 
never did a day's work or discovered anything ; 
a name it has ever since retained. 

McLaughlin and O'Riley, content with the 
small holdings left them after being swindled by 
Comstock, continued to toil ceaselessly, and in 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 325 

the excavation they were making to obtain dis- 
integrated matter, which they could wash with- 
out crushing, they at no great depth began 
encountering small seams but a few inches in 
width of hard black rock which interfered with 
their work and annoyed them much from the 
fact that it was difficult to extract with pick 
and shovel, and beside the fragments had to be 
sorted from the loose material to be washed in 
their rockers. Finally a stroller about the camp 
one day picked up a few pieces of this black rock 
and carried them away to Placerville, Califor- 
nia. Here they were assayed, showing a result 
of three thousand dollars per ton in silver and 
nearly a thousand dollars in gold. 

This, of course, created an excitement and 
a wild stampede followed. Hordes of human- 
ity and long trains of pack animals laden with 
supplies quickly filled the passes of the Sierras 
headed for the new El Dorado. 

Wildly they swarmed down the eastern 
slope, and out across the desolate sage brush 
waste beyond, guided ever by the towering sum- 
mit of Sun peak. 

And by the coming of winter or the close 
of the year 1859, all of Gold hill, the eastern 
slope of Sun peak, far down into Gold canyon, 
together with the surrounding hills, was a mass 
of holes and mounds of earth created by this 
motley horde of fortune hunters. And it was 
now well known that the loose yellow dirt, 
though a rich silver chloride, was but incidental, 



326 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

and that the great wealth lay in the heretofore 
despised hard black rock, which from unknown 
depths poked its nose upward into the affairs of 
the early operators. 

Late in August of 1859, one and a half tons 
of this black rock (which in fact was a fabu- 
lously rich ore containing "argentite" or silver 
glance, together with stephanite) was packed 
upon the backs of animals to San Francisco and 
there sold for one dollar and fifty cents per 
pound, or three thousand dollars per ton. This 
was followed by other shipments until, at the 
close of the year, over twenty tons had been 
packed over the Sierras. The cost of packing- 
was about one hundred and fifty dollars per 
ton, and the treatment charge at that time over 
four hundred dollars per ton. 

Two camps were now started along the face 
of the mountain heretofore known as Sun peak, 
but now renamed Mount Davidson, after a San 
Francisco banker, now interested in several of 
the claims, which he had incorporated into what 
was known as the Ophir company. 

One of the towns referred to was built at 
the mound and named Gold Hill ; the other was 
located farther out along the ledge to the north 
and was called Virginia City, after "Old Vir- 
ginny." The main street was laid along the out- 
crop of the ledge and was soon lined with gro- 
tesque habitations. 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 327 

The spring of 1860 witnessed a stampede 
from the settlements of California to the new 
bonanza never before seen. It was the outburst 
of a long winter of rapidly growing and almost 
unbearable desire accompanied by most exten- 
sive preparation. It was an easy route so far 
as Sacramento, for the river of that name be- 
tween San Francisco and this point was nav- 
igable, and steamboats of some considerable di- 
mensions made their way without difficulty. 
From here, however, it was a long, tedious 
pilgrimage through the wilderness of the steep 
Sierras, each foot of the way beset with hard- 
ships too numerous to mention, as in their route 
via Placerville and over Johnson's pass into 
the valley of the Carson, they clambered through 
snow banks and mud holes, then over fallen tim- 
ber and rocks. In this manner thousands of 
beings, composed of every nationality and every 
station in life, found their way ere the summer 
of 1860 had far advanced, to this desolate, yet 
seductive, center. 

Development upon the great lode progressed 
rapidly under the conditions imposed. Prac- 
tical miners, or in fact wage earners of any 
kind, were difficult to obtain. None came here 
with a view to indulging in so slow and com- 
monplace an acquirement of worldly goods. 
The vein was growing huge in its proportions 
as depth was attained, and was soft and inca- 
pable of self support. Comparatively little 
was known at this time of scientific mining, and 



328 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

timber must be brought a long way. To add to 
all this, the lode soon developed a strong flow 
of water which must be cared for. Nor was all 
this the sum total of trouble in operation. 

Although the volume of ore disclosed was in- 
creasing enormously, there was but a small per- 
centage of it of that extremely high grade neces- 
sary to stand transportation to California and 
the costly treatment by smelting which it must 
receive ; hence, the by far greatest tonnage must 
remain on the dumps a worthless mass, through 
absolute lack of knowledge of any method of 
treating it upon the ground at a profit. 

Yankee science, aided by importations of 
talent from Erieburg, Germany, failed to in any 
degree solve the problem, and resort was neces- 
sary to a method devised and employed by the 
Mexicans for a century or more prior, in the 
extraction of gold and silver from certain ores 
not of a free milling nature. The method was 
that now known in this country as pan amal- 
gamation. The ore, after first being ground 
finely, was mixed with salt, mercury and water, 
then heated and stirred constantly. The Mex- 
ican appliances, however,, for producing the 
highest practical result from the scientific prin- 
ciple to which they had given birth, were crude 
and inefficient, and it remained for Yankee in- 
genuity to perfect them as seen to-day. 

The matter of who constructed and placed in 
operation the first mill for the treatment of 
these ores seems at this late day difficult of de- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 329 

termination, two mills being built, one by 
Almarin B. Paul, and the other by Charles S. 
Coover; both were completed on the 9th day of 
August, 1860, and started nearly simultaneous- 
ly, the charge for treatment being thirty dollars 
per ton. 

Other mills with continued improvements 
now followed rapidly until about 100 mills were 
in operation. 

In the following year of 1861 the territory 
of Nevada was created, with James W. Nye ap- 
pointed as governor. 

And now nearly a hundred companies were 
formed and operating to a greater or less extent 
upon this wonderful lode. And probably in no 
operations ever engaged in heretofore or since 
was there ever seen such inconceivably and in- 
sanely reckless extravagance as was here uni- 
versally practiced. 

The very air was filled with processes for 
treatment of the ores, each claimed to be far 
superior to the Mexican method. Great pri- 
vate mills were built, that were total failures, 
and costing as much as a million dollars each, 
surrounded with beautifully terraced grounds 
filled with costly fountains, statuary and aqua- 
riums, together with managers' residences that 
were veritable palaces. 

In addition to such expenditures, the vari- 
ous companies were now beset with litigation. 
The great lode made its appearance upon the 



330 EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

surface as apparently many different lodes run- 
ning parallel and with partitions of porphyritic 
roek, in some cases a hundred or more feet in 
width, the dip of each being to the west or 
into Mount Davidson. E"ow, with depth, this 
series of veins was found not only uniting into 
one, but the great vein formed of this accumu- 
lation reversed its dip and was now pitching to 
the east or away from Mount Davidson, at an 
angle of about 40 degrees from the horizon. 
Endless litigation now commenced, based upon 
innumerable complaints, and in five years fol- 
lowing, no less than ten millions of dollars were 
expended in legal warfare. 

The terrible trail over the Sierras, via Lake 
Tahoe and Placerville, had now developed into 
the most magnificent highway in the United 
States, Nearly a million dollars had been ex- 
pended upon it in crossing the range. It was 
macadamized for nearly its entire length, its 
width at all points was sufficient for two teams 
to drive abreast, while it was traversed from 
early morn until late at night by an unending 
line of the finest stages and freight teams in 
the world. 

In every direction efforts were being made to 
avoid the haul of supplies from California. The 
Carson and Truckee valleys were, so far as pos- 
sible, being brought under cultivation, whereby 
to furnish foodstuffs. Salt, which was used in 
large quantities in the mills, it was found, could 
be obtained from the beds of saline lakes in the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 331 

desert to the south. To transport this across the 
arid waste a train of Bactrian camels were im- 
ported, who for some time performed the ser- 
vice, each carrying a load of from 400 to 500 
pounds; finally, however, their use was aban- 
doned, from the fact that their feet could not 
withstand injury from the sharp stones encoun- 
tered in the mountainous portions of the trail. 
They were now taken into the trackless desert 
in the south and there turned loose to roam at 
will. Possibly a few of them still exist, in the 
most impenetrable portions of the great waste, 
but as these regions have little by little been 
explored, most of them have been shot by team- 
sters, whose mules and horses they frightened 
into the wildest of stampedes. 

In the fall of 1869 William Sharon, inter- 
ested not only upon the lode, but in the mills 
which treated the ores, completed a line of 
railway from Virginia City and the mines, down 
to the mills on the Carson river and to Carson 
City, and the following year extended it to a 
connection at Eeno which the Central Pacific 
railway now built. 

The water supply for the overcrowded towns 
of Virginia City and Gold Hill being obtained 
from tunnels run for the purpose, and from the 
discharge of the mines, was not only of poor 
quality but inadequate in volume, hence in 1873 
a company known as the Virginia and Gold 
Hill Water Company, installed a pipe line from 
Hobart creek in the Sierra Nevaclas, seven and 



332 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

one-half miles distant in a straight line. This 
pipe was twelve inches inside diameter, and in 
crossing Washoe valley sustained a head of over 
seventeeen hundred (1700) feet, a remarkable 
example for this or later times. 

In 1875 a disastrous fire demonstrated the 
inefficiency of this line, when it was duplicated, 
the supply being taken from Lake Mariette 
in the Sierras. 

For some time there had been a decrease in 
the output of the mines opened, while some 
were out of ore entirely. Things looked uncer- 
tain and discouraging in Virginia City, where, 
away up there on the side of Mount Davidson, 
city lots had sold as high as $25,000 each. In 
the very heart of the lode was a stretch of from 
twelve to thirteen hundred feet, owned by dif- 
ferent parties who would not, or could not, de- 
velop the same themselves, and had placed upon 
it a price so high that no one would consider it. 

In the camp was a party named John W. 
Mackey. First a miner, he had risen to super- 
intendent of what was known as the Caledonia 
Tunnel and Mining company, then became the 
owner of considerable stock in the Kentuck 
mine. In the camp was also another party 
named James G. Fair, who had followed pretty 
much the same course as Mackey. Associating 
themselves together they obtained control of 
the Hale and Norcross mine, which at that time 
was deemed of little value. Engaging in the 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 333 

operation of this, they developed new ore bodies 
and made a somewhat marked success. 

Associated with Mackey and Fair in the 
Hale and Norcross, were two San Francisco 
parties (saloon keepers) named James C. Flood 
and William O'Brien, constituting a quartet of 
Irishmen whose subsequent success will be 
shown to be notable. 

The Hale and Norcross was finally ex- 
hausted, and the quartet, in casting about for 
some other holding out of which they might 
make a mine, settled upon the undeveloped 
stretch heretofore referred to, which had under- 
gone no change save that the various owners 
had consolidated their holdings under the title 
of the Virginia Consolidated Mining company. 
Obtaining ownership of this at a small price, 
the four set to work upon its development by 
sinking a large shaft upon the property and 
also by projecting a drift into the ground from 
the 1200 foot level of the Gould and Curry 
mine and through the Best and Belcher mine 
which lay between. 

In running this drift they followed a small 
streak of ore, at times no thicker than a knife 
blade. At intervals they stopped and extended 
crosscuts east and west. Finding nothing they 
would continue following the little seam of ore, 
where at last at a point 178 feet from the north 
boundary of the Best and Belcher, it suddenly 
opened to a vein of large dimensions filled with 



334 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

ore of good grade, and continued to widen rap- 
idly as the drift was pushed forward. 

Meanwhile the big shaft from the surface 
was being hurried downward, and as crosscuts 
were extended from it at points below the drift 
mentioned, the width of the ore body showed 
itself rapidly increasing until a maximum width 
of some 400 feet had been determined, of an ore 
running in value from $100 to $600 per ton. 
Gradually excitement had increased until now 
it knew no bounds, and no mind was fitted to 
make a rational prophecy of the volume of 
wealth which this one great treasure chamber 
contained. 

The other mines upon the lode which 
had heretofore been regarded as bonanzas, 
now sunk into insignificance in the light of 
the fabulous riches here disclosed. Still the 
maddening influence was felt by these own- 
ers alike with others, spurring them on to 
redoubled energy in development, with the 
belief that like treasures were confined in 
the lode throughout. The public believed 
this also, and the stock of all properties 
soared skyward, borne irresistibly upon the tor- 
nado of wild, delirious imagination. 

The ingenuity of mankind was taxed to its 
utmost in the creation of appliances wherewith 
to more rapidly delve into the bowels of the 
earth and extract its golden contents. The 
hoisting engines were marvels of magnitude and 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 335 

efficiency. The hoisting capacity of the Consol- 
idated Virginia alone being 2000 tons per day. 

Meanwhile an enterprise of great magnitude, 
aside from the mining and milling of these ores, 
though dependent upon the same for its success, 
was now hastening to a completion. In 1865, 
Adolph Sutro, with others, incorporated through 
act of the Nevada state legislature what was 
known as the Sutro Tunnel Company. Its 
mouth or portal was located in the border of 
the Carson valley, and its proposed length to be 
nearly four miles, to cut the Comstock lode at 
a depth of about 1700 feet below the collar of 
the Savage Mining Company's shaft. 

From its inception, the enterprise was laden 
with difficulties. Still undaunted, Sutro strug- 
gled on accomplishing a little each year, until 
at last, when the great bonanza was encountered 
in 1873, and the greater depths were sought by 
all the mines, Sutro, finding money easier to ob- 
tain, pushed forward with redoubled energy, 
aided in a marked degree and at a most oppor- 
tune period through the introduction of practical 
power drills, (and, incidentally, whose record in 
this work has never since been equaled) when 
on the 8th of July, 1878, the heading was broken 
through into the workings of the Savage mine, 
too late, however, to reap the full reward which 
an earlier entry would have assured, as under 
the stress and strain of the five years preceding, 
millions of tons of ore and water had been raised 



336 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

to the surface, while the stopes of the mines 
were well below the tunnel level. 

The heat in the workings (especially below 
the Sutro tunnel level) of all the mines upon 
the lode was intense; its increase was three 
degrees of temperature with each 100 feet of 
depth. Though the workings reached depths 
of over 3000 feet, this was not due to an ap- 
proach of the earth's center, but was conveyed 
by ascending hot waters in part, and in part 
by the decomposition of certain rocks. 

The workmen employed in these lower levels 
were necessarily strong and vigorous. Tons of 
ice were daily lowered into the workings, the 
men in no case working over a half hour, and 
in most cases but ten or fifteen minutes, when 
they would retreat to the mouth of the great 
blower pipe and ice pile, while a fresh crew 
with pieces of ice in their mouths would rush 
forward to the breasts for a short and trying 
shift. All worked naked to the waist, and in 
the great subterranean chambers, with flitting 
lights, ascending vapors, noisy drills and roar- 
ing blasts, it provided a scene in which Dante 
might have reveled. Now and then an ill fated 
wretch, stumbling in the darkness or slipping 
from the face of a stope, fell into a sump or pool 
of the boiling waters, and in more than one 
instance when pulled from the deadly bath, the 
flesh fell from his bones into the seething cal- 
dron from whence he was lifted. Adding to 
such fatalities those arising from falling down 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 



337 



shafts, being crushed by falling rock and smoth- 
ered in drifts through great cavings which closed 
the openings and shut off their only means of 
escape, and the length of the chapter of horrors 
presented is only outdone by the appalling tale 
it unfolds. 

The lode was treacherous and difficult to 
operate, owing to the combined conditions of 
its immense magnitude, the flood of water which 
entered its lower levels, together with the nature 
of the material which formed the great vein 
being loose, incapable of self support and the 
feldspathic matter tending to swell upon ex- 
posure. The movement of the great mass was 
almost irresistible, though no expense was spared 
in the attempt, for over 3000 human beings 
were at all times of day and night scattered 
about, thousands of feet below the surface in 
the deadly yawning chasms of this treacherous 
subterranean field. Hence timber of the best 
quality was employed to such an extent that 
in many places where the ground was the heavi- 
est, the ore extracted had been substituted sol- 
idly therewith; and even this was soon crushed 
or compressed to a fraction of its original bulk. 
To-day there exists, deep down in the Oomstoek 
lode and scattered throughout its entire work- 
ings, timber which standing upon the surface 
constituted entire forests. 

To the layman in such matters who treads 
over the comparatively silent surface of to-day, 



338 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

pausing here and there to peer downward into 
the deep, dark shafts, once golden highways 
beyond belief, but now little used, it is dif- 
ficult to understand all this. When, however, 
we leave here and tramp for 114 miles about the 
shores of Lake Tahoe, over in the Sierras, and 
far back from its water's edge, all of the way 
over ground once covered thickly by a forest 
of towering and magnificent pines, the position 
and magnitude of each of which is to-day clearly 
denoted by its stump, and then further realize 
that all this represents but a minor portion of 
the timber employed, the devouring capacity 
of this subterranean monster, from whose stom- 
ach had been extracted the ores of gold and sil- 
ver with which it was once filled, becomes ap- 
parent. 

The probable cost of all this timber, includ- 
ing transportation, framing and putting in place, 
together with that of some three million cords 
of wood consumed at the mills and hoists is 
not far from one hundred millions of dollars. 

The total timber which has gone down the 
shafts and into the workings for their support, 
if packed in one solid body, would form a cube 
at least 500 feet in height, 500 feet in length 
and 500 feet in width. The gross value in gold 
and silver of all ores extracted from this great 
storehouse is well known to be considerably 
more than seven hundred and fifty millions of 
dollars j notwithstanding published statistics of 
about four hundred millions, for the figures 



EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 339 

given to history must agree with those from 
time to time previously given to the assessor. 

In addition to these values, it is estimated 
that over one hundred millions have passed down 
the Carson river, having escaped from the mills 
along its banks in which the ore was treated. 

The geology of this great ore deposit was 
first and most accurately, though briefly and 
simply, described by Baron Von Kichthofen, 
who was sent from Europe in 1865 by a syndi- 
cate who contemplated the purchase of a large 
block of stock in the Sutro tunnel scheme. In 
fact, his report formed a document of reference 
in all of the later examinations which followed, 
while the reports subsequently made varied in no 
manner worthy of mention from his determin- 
ations, though vastly superior advantages were 
presented later authorities, through almost un- 
limited development. In substance he says: 
"The west wall of the lode conforms very closely 
to the easterly slope of the range and its con- 
tours, and of Mount Davidson. This west wall, 
along the greater portion of the vein, and espec- 
ially along the slope of Mount Davidson, is 
syenite so far as explored, though propylite and 
occasional occurrences of aphanite are met with 
as coming in contact with the vein. The eastern 
wall is formed of endless varieties of propylite. 
The vein matter is composed of fragments of 
country rock, clay, quartz and ores. Near the 
surface, about five-sixths of the Comstock vein 
consists of 'horses' of syenite and propylite, 



340 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

most largely the latter. This surface width of 
the lode including its 'horses/ is in many places 
500 feet in width. A clayey selvage at many 
points from ten to twenty feet in thickness, 
parts the vein matter from each of the walls, and 
in many instances from the 'horses,' through- 
out the entire length of the vein, so far as 
opened." 

When the great Comstock was at its zenith 
of production and the extent of its monstrous 
ore bodies, particularly that of the Virginia 
Consolidated practically unknown, the whole 
financial world was for the time being in a 
state of alarm over possible results to the future 
values of the money metals, for upon the ratio 
then and ever before maintained, the value of 
the production in gold was nearly as much as 
that in silver, or more accurately, 45 per cent, 
gold and 55 per cent, silver. The sight alone 
of the breast of rich ore of the great bonanza, 
400 feet in width with its other dimensions un- 
determined, suggested to the coolest of those 
most concerned, the possibility that from here 
alone would be produced a volume of gold and 
silver which would soon render each a base 
metal. 

The Comstock has come, and practically 
gone, while in truth, from the earlier standpoint 
of the greatest good to the greatest number, there 
is yet a marked shortage of both silver and gold 
for money uses ! 



EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 341 

To picture the lives and relate the deeds 
of even the most unique of the characters who 
abounded in the midst of this carnival of gold, 
though most interesting, provides material of 
far too great volume to embody in a work con- 
taining aught else but this. 

The fortunes, and through these fortunes, 
the lives of the four great bonanza kings, 
Mackey, Fair, Mood and O'Brien, have received 
wide publication, yet others sprang from, passed 
their lives, and went into oblivion upon the 
great lode, who, had they not been so completely 
overshadowed by the four towering monuments 
of success referred to, would have become far 
more widely known. The briefest reference, 
however, to the Comstock and its characters is 
nnpardonably incomplete, which fails to men- 
tion the name of Sandy Bowers. Sandy was 
one of the early comers who obtained a location 
upon the lode at a time in which its future 
value was little dreamed of, and while he pa- 
tiently toiled in the development of his holdings, 
he obtained his food and shelter at a certain 
boarding house down at Gold Hill, kept by an 
industrious, hard-working Scotch woman, who 
was also the owner of a piece of ground immedi- 
ately adjoining that belonging to Sandy. Force 
of circumstances rendered it both convenient and 
advisable for them to pool their mining inter- 
ests, and but a short time later their joys and 
sorrows; and now Mr. and Mrs. Bowers were 
joint owners of a prospective mine at one end 



342 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

of the line and a boarding house at the other; 
and while he toiled farther up on the mountain 
side in search of hidden and uncertain wealth, 
she labored meanwhile, and late into the night, 
along less hopeful lines, whereby was acquired 
the necessary funds for the maintenance of each. 
Finally Sandy's pick uncovered the treasure for 
which they had each long hoped and toiled, and 
as they delved deeper and deeper into their 
find, it ere long developed a magnitude and 
wealth beyond question, and the boarding house 
was closed, and they each evolved with a single 
bound out of plebian and into the surroundings 
of patricians. Their wealth now poured in 
upon them in such torrents that it was with 
difficulty their heads were kept above the flood. 
They now conceived the idea of building a 
palace, and chose a location out across Washoe 
valley opposite the lake and close up under 
the sheltering shadows of the towering Sierras. 
Upon the construction of this they expended 
$500,000. The knobs and hinges of the doors 
were of solid silver, taken from their own mine ; 
even the kitchen range was trimmed with the 
same material. In place of little, insignificant 
bath-tubs, they fitted up an elaborate natatori- 
um, which was fed from a thermal spring near 
by. When all this was complete, they decided 
to engage in a little travel and take a look at 
the few things in the world that amounted to 
anything outside of Virginia City and the Corn- 
stock lode. To this end they drew from the bank 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 343 

a quarter of a million dollars, and later made 
another draft to enable them to return home. 

They visited Europe, and Mrs. Bowers 
being a Scotch woman and a British subject, 
they caused to be made from the bullion from 
their own mine, a most elaborate dinner service 
of gold and silver (for this bullion was rich 
in gold). This service they took with them, 
and through some influence attended court and 
were presented to the queen, and in turn pre- 
sented her with the sendee mentioned. 

They purchased and sent home to the Bow- 
ers' mansion, a ship load of things that no one 
else would have, and then returning, installed 
themselves amidst all this wealth and grandeur, 
and studied other and more extended methods of 
expenditure, having obtained a few additional 
ideas abroad. 

And now rapidly came reverses. The agent 
who had conducted their affairs during their ab- 
sence had proven unworthy of his stewardship. 
The ore bodies in their mine declined in mag- 
nitude and richness, and soon became exhausted. 
Enormous expenditures and bad investments 
had already reduced their wealth to a small per 
cent of the total they had received. 

Soon Sandy died, and continued misfortune 
shortly left the widow with nothing but the 
Bowers mansion. She had always followed to 
some extent the role of a seeress, and now en- 
tered upon a series of prophecies relative to the 
Comstock. Amongst other predictions which were 



344 REMINISCENT RAMBLHSTGS. 

promptly fulfilled at the day and hour named, 
was the great fire of April, 1869, in the work- 
ings of the Crown Point and Yellow Jacket 
mines, wherein the millions of dollars of dam- 
age resulting was attended by a loss of life 
through suffocation and burning in these sub- 
terranean tombs too appalling for description. 
The fulfillment of these prophecies now made 
her famous, and the advice of the " Washoe 
Seeress," as she was termed, was sought on 
every hand. Scarce an operator on the Corn- 
stock failed to consult her, while the fees she re- 
ceived were enormous, yet this money seemed 
to follow her previous wealth, and her services 
later being less sought, she again found herself 
roaming penniless through the stately halls of 
her mansion, which she now converted into a 
source of revenue, and for years, dwelling there 
alone, rented it and its grounds for picnics and 
dances to pleasure parties from Reno, Carson 
and Virginia, while she, incidentally, catered 
to the believers amongst them, by telling a for- 
tune for 50 cents, for which she had in time 
past received as high as a thousand dollars. 
Finally, declining years and inability to even 
keep the great place in a state of repair, (though 
the authorities had waived her taxes for many 
years) induced her to abandon the loneliness 
and responsibilities of her queenly abode and 
flee from the mockery of its decaying magnifi- 
cence. She went to San Francisco and there 
eked out an existence at her old profession of 



EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 345 

fortune telling, until one day, later, the east 
bound overland train, stopping at Reno, an old 
lady past 80 years of age, decrepit and ill, was 
helped from the day coach, and tottering into 
the waiting room of the station, seated herself 
and asked to see some of the town authorities, 
that she might receive a home in the county 
poor house. It was the Washoe seeress. 

To-day in traveling between Reno and Car- 
son, as one looks from the car window far out 
across the Washoe valley, at the grim old ruin, 
once her palatial home, now stripped of its 
magnificent appointments, tottering under the 
touch of decay, and dwarfed through distance, 
and the massive, towering Sierras, at whose foot 
it nestles, it appeals to us as the most inter- 
esting of the many monuments which still re- 
main, each possessed of its own tale of poverty 
and affluence, sorrows and joys, strife and 
profligacy, with which early life on the great 
Comstock was so fruitful. 

And finally (aside from the Grosh brothers, 
whose misfortunes and death are hereinbefore 
related) what of the fortunes and final ending 
of the early locators of 1859, Finney, O'Riley, 
McLaughlin and Comstock? 

Finney, after two years of a profligate 
drunken existence, fell from his horse and was 
killed. 

O'Riley lost his money in other and more 
visionary mining prospects, then losing his rea- 



346 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

son, was consigned to an insane asylum, where 
he soon died. 

McLaughlin, through general misfortune, 
soon lost his competence, and spent the balance 
of his life in the performance of menial duties, 
finally dying in the county hospital of San 
Bernardino county, California, friendless, pen- 
niless and unknown. 

Comstoek, the least worthy of them all, 
squandered his money in the gratification of 
tastes common to a person of his character and 
inclinations, then became a wandering and 
worthless prospector, and finally through drink 
and genera] dissipation, parting with what little 
mind he ever possessed, wandered about the 
country, owning in his imagination the entire 
lode which bore his name, and presenting to 
those he met princely portions of the great bo- 
nanza. At length, wandering into the little min- 
ing camp of Bonanza, Montana, his senses 
cleared for an instant, when, seeming to realize 
his true condition, he seized a six shooter, and 
blowing out his brains, was rudely interred in 
an obscure and unmarked grave, September 27, 
1870. 

Thus endeth a brief history of the greatest 
individual occurrence of the precious metal 
ores the world has so far known. 



CHAPTEK XVI. 

The spring time was again approaching and 
with it the usual feeling of unrest that afflicts 
the confirmed prospector. Numerous fields 
scattered over a wide area presented their allur- 
ing and deceptive attractions. 

Leadville had now reached the zenith of its 
glory and production. The ores of Cripple 
Creek yet remained undiscovered. While Butte, 
Montana, though a camp dating from the 60's 
when gold was first discovered in Missoula 
gulch, had worked its way through a lengthy, 
trying, uneventful period of gold and silver 
production, until now, during the winter of 
'79 and '80, it was attracting the world's at- 
tention through the development of a new in- 
dustry, and the well established fact that its 
copper deposits were of startling magnitude. 
The town built upon the south face of the 
mountain which sloped to the plain below, 
rested upon a great field of eruptive granite, 
bordered but a short distance to the west by an 
area many square miles in extent of more strict- 
ly eruptive matter, as rhyolite and kindred rocks. 

Stretching away down the mountain toward 
the east from the rhyolite contact, underlying 
the city and a great area to the north, coursed a 
system of veins some of which, being worked 



348 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

originally for silver, upon reaching the limit 
of oxidization led their owners into the far more 
extensive and remunerative field of pyritical 
ores of copper. 

Far away to the south in the desert of 
Arizona, and not far distant from the boundary 
line between the United States and Mexico, 
there had now also sprung into existence, and 
already gained full-fledged form, the wildest and 
most alluring of all the then mining centers, 
"Tombstone." Its discoveries and output of 
silver, coupled with a certain wild, untamed 
environment it enjoyed, worked well together 
in endowing the great majority everywhere with 
the infatuation for which they longed. Located 
away up in a group of barren hills which bor- 
dered the Rio San Pedro on the east and some 
eight miles distant, it enjoyed a position of 
superior freedom, even in this practically unin- 
habited region, from the dominance or interfer- 
ence of organizations for the promotion of law 
and order, or the levers thereof. The only com- 
petition of importance which the lawless, riot- 
ous element which, unrestrained, flooded the 
camp, had, was on the part of the Apaches 
under old "Cochise," who dwelt (when safety 
demanded) in what was known as "Cochise" 
stronghold, over in the Dragoon mountains 
about twelve miles to the northeast, and far up 
in its fastnesses in a little "pot hole" of a 
park where water existed and some feed grew, 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 349 

encircled by a rim of towering rocks, render- 
ing it practically inacessible at but one point. 
And here the wily Apache retreated when he 
deemed discretion the better part of valor, 
and dwelt for years in safety, and defied all 
the world of which he knew, the U. S. soldiers 
over at Fort Grant, twenty miles to the north in 
the Pinaleno range, included. 

And thus Cochise stronghold and Tombstone 
became rival retreats; the one for the Apache, 
and the other for the white outlaw, of which the 
country soon became well infested. 

Tombstone, owing to its advantages, soon 
added to its silver industry others (legitimate 
and otherwise) which soon swelled its popula- 
tion to some 10,000 or 12,000 beings. It be- 
came somewhat of a supply and distributing 
point for the great unprovided area roundabout, 
now fast becoming inhabited by the prospector 
and others through the influence of the Tomb- 
stone discoveries, and its aptly named news- 
paper the "Epitaph." Another important and 
remunerative industry was that of delivering 
American goods over the line and into the Re- 
public of Mexico, and bringing Mexican goods 
back into Tombstone, in each case free of duty, 
a pursuit commonly called smuggling. The ab- 
solute boldness with which this occupation was 
engaged in was never dreamed of on the part of 
a southern "moonshiner." In the broad light 
of the midday, groups of well known con- 



350 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

trabandists might have been seen boldly load- 
ing jack trains with all manner of merchandise 
from the various business houses on "Whiskey 
Row," the leading thoroughfare of the town. 

From here they would start out in various 
directions, apparently to supply isolated camps 
upon the desert and in the hills, when, after 
a round-about course, they would finally, after 
night fall, rendezvous at some hidden point near 
the line, where, from their concealment, they 
could watch the line rider on the Mexican side, 
when, after he had passed, they would, under 
cover of darkness, hasten across. Returning 
with their loads of Mexican goods, the opera- 
tion was simply repeated, with the exception 
that the Mexican line rider was ignored and 
the American avoided. 

The ores of this camp, though of high grade, 
were so far removed from railway lines that 
the long wagon haul involved a loss greater than 
the difference in saving between the smelter and 
that of milling. Hence, they were treated in 
mills erected upon the banks of the Rio San 
Pedro eight miles distant, and here another 
town sprang up known as Charleston, which 
soon became a formidable rival of Tombstone 
along the lines of general outlawry. 

The ores were most largely silver bearing, 
producing upon an average eight dollars of the 
white metal (at the then existing price) to one 
dollar of the yellow. The total production hav- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 351 

ing been three and one-quarter million dollars 
in gold, and twenty-five millions in silver, to- 
gether with a bi-product of about five thousand 
tons of lead and a later product of some con- 
siderable manganese of commercial value. 

The ores occurred in alternate sheets of lime, 
quartzite and shale, having a total thickness of 
about three thousand feet, folded and otherwise 
disturbed through the influences of an adjacent 
field of massive diorite. The ore presented it- 
self both in fissure veins and bedded deposits ; 
the veins were vertical or nearly so, and occurred 
along or near dikes of eruptive material, while 
the bedded deposits were along anticlinal folds 
of the strata. Little ore was found in the shales 
except in the fissures, from which, however, 
about one-half of the camp's production came. 
Manganese in both oxide and sulphide form 
occurred to some extent in nearly all of the 
mines. 

The main properties were the Grand Cen- 
tral, Contention, Head Center and others with 
less dignified names, such as, the Way Up, 
Good Enough, Tough Nut, and Lucky Cuss. 

The great deserts of Arizona, southern Cal- 
ifornia and portions of New Mexico were, in the 
days preceding the discovery of Tombstone and 
until the building of the Southern Pacific and 
Atlantic and Pacific railways, a trackless waste, 
penetrated only by mule and ox teams from 
Santa Ye and Albuquerque on the east, or 



352 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

from that water way, the Colorado river, which 
wends its sinuous course from north to south 
through the desolation and solitude of that great 
burning, barren waste, well toward the west. 
This great river, formed from a major portion 
of the drainage of Utah, Colorado and Wyom- 
ing, first carves for itself a channel hun- 
dreds of miles in length, and in many places a 
mile or more in depth, through the elevated 
and extremely arid regions of northern Ari- 
zona and southern Utah, where the lack of rain 
fall and consequent lack of erosion, or destruc- 
tion of land surface on either side, has pre- 
served the original elevation of the adjacent 
country, while the noble stream, tearing away 
at its bed through countless ages, has finally 
created that masterpiece of earth sculpture 
known as the canon of the Colorado. 

For three hundred miles from its mouth it 
was for many years an active highway that fed 
the trackless desert east and west for hundreds 
of miles. Freight and passengers were deliv- 
ered by ocean transit at the head of the gulf 
of California, where they were met by the river 
streamers, "Gila" and "Mohave." Though now 
of ancient type, they were powerful ; for the 
current of the Colorado, especially in high 
water, was a force no ordinary boat could con- 
tend with. For forty years they navigated this 
stream, one under the command of Captain Pol- 
hamus, and the other under command of Cap- 
tain Mellon, and probably no steam conveyance 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 353 

ever, for so great a length of time, entered a 
field of such varied types and methods, or one 
that so perfectly maintained through all time 
the unrestrained customs of a wild and desolate 
frontier. Far away up from its mouth a dis- 
tance of one hundred and forty miles or more, 
and on the Arizona shore, there was founded 
(near the close of the Rebellion) a town called 
La Paz. It was at a convenient point on the 
river for reaching a large trade in the desert, 
and moreover situated near the mouth of a large 
drain where rich placer digging had been dis- 
covered. And now, away there in the solitude 
of this remote desert waste, it suddenly grew 
into a city of some fifteen thousand or more 
inhabitants, and was the mecca toward which 
drifted sooner or later every outlaw, male and 
female, Mexican and white, from out of every 
quarter of the boundless, wild domain which sur- 
rounded it; until at last, seemingly through its 
inordinate iniquity, the hand of providence 
smote it. Not with fire or tempest, but through 
the operation of a comparatively gentle flood. 
The melting snows far away in the northlands 
produced the annual high water in the river, 
when, the formidable and persistent stream, 
obstructed and impeded by the formation of 
a great sand bar in the vicinity, suddenly 
changed its course and formed a new channel, 
leaving La Paz and its occupants a mile inland. 
There was now no alternative but to remain 
helpless in an exiled town or return to the river. 



354 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 

It was impossible to remove the buildings, as they 
were all built of adobe; and so the population 
gathered up their goods, and laden with these 
and their misfortune, wended their way down 
the river a distance of about three miles where 
a deep channel of the stream came in contact 
with an indestructible bank, and here founded 
a new town named Ehrenberg, after that re- 
nowned scientist. 

In recent years, the writer, during a night 
journey from the Chem-e-huev-vis Indian reser- 
vation south, wandered, near midnight, into 
what was once the main business thoroughfare, 
nearly a mile in length, of this long-since ab- 
solutely deserted city of La Paz. It was in the 
early summer, and in this arid region, the un- 
restricted rays of a full moon fell weirdly and 
silently upon this equally silent scene of deso- 
lation and decay. Here and there, patches of 
cement sidewalk peeped from beneath accumu- 
lations of drifted sands, while an occasional 
iron shutter of a once pretentious warehouse, 
dance hall, or saloon, still clung tenaciously by 
one hinge to an opening in a now crumbling 
adobe wall; while, in numerous instances, in- 
side these ruined enclosures, where the din and 
clamor of trade and revelry had long since 
ceased, and the roof had later fallen in, there 
had since grown to its fullest size a mesquite 
tree, whose branches overhung and tenderly 



BEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 355 

sheltered the tottering work of man, now rap- 
idly passing back to earth again. 

A short distance ahead, a desert wolf glided 
noiselessly out of the sheltering shadows of the 
ruins upon the right, into the full light of the 
moon-lit street, paused for an instant to note 
our approach, then as silently as the shadow 
which accompanied him, disappeared midst 
the fastnesses of the ruins upon our left. 
A rattle - snake of the "side winder" type 
wriggled hurriedly from out the pathway of 
the mule team, and viciously buzzed its 
threats as we passed. This with a single 
sharp howl of protest from the wolf, which 
reached us later on, were the only sounds 
that rent the stilly stillness of the midnight air, 
as we stole silently on through the dark, des- 
olate, uncanny scene, and out past the cluster 
of barren mounds that marked the resting place 
of the remains of La Paz dead, nine-tenths of 
whom died with their boots on. 

Ehrenberg, though an important river land- 
ing, never reached the proportions of La Paz. 
Yet, proportionate to its size, there was little 
La Paz could boast of in the way of wild and 
woolly waywardness that Ehrenberg was a 
stranger to. Not many years - after its estab- 
lishment, the extension of railway lines robbed 
the river of its importance as a thoroughfare ; the 
steamers made less and less frequent trips, until 
to-day Ehrenberg has become but a point marked 



356 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

by the ruins of its former greatness, and inhab- 
ited only by some forty or fifty Mexicans and 
Indians, whose numbers are at intervals in- 
creased temporarily by the visits of white and 
Mexican "dry washers" for gold, scattered 
about in the ranges bordering the river valley. 

Many interesting and surprising tales are 
related of happenings in and about these two old 
river towns. One well authenticated, and the 
hero of which (a Mohave Indian) was personal- 
ly known to the writer, appeals strongly to all 
lovers of athletics as a matter worthy of record. 
To all people possessed of any knowledge of 
them, the wonderful feats of the desert tribes 
(and particularly of the Mohaves) in long-dis- 
tance running are well known. 

In the early days of Ehrenberg, a man was 
one day frightfully burned by kerosene; there 
was no physician and no drug store in this ex- 
tremely frontier town; a noted Mohave runner 
who dwelt along the river nearby, was hastily 
engaged to run to Fort Yuma, a govern- 
ment post later occupied as a Catholic school, 
situated on the California side of the river, 
directly opposite the present town of Yuma. 

The distance from Ehrenberg to Fort Yuma, 
as the crow flies and as determined by the gov- 
ernment surveys, is sixty miles. By the nearest 
trail possible for the Indian to take, it was at 
least seventy-five miles and involved swimming 
the river once each way. The distance follow- 
ing the river, and owing to the great bend which 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 357 

it makes to the east between these points, is 
more than one hundred miles. The agreement 
with the Indian was that he was to receive ten 
dollars for the trip and an additional ten 
dollars if he returned within twenty - four 
hours. The Indian prepared himself quickly 
for the undertaking, and following the trail 
mentioned, disappeared. Well inside the twen- 
ty-four hour limit he ran into Ehrenberg on 
his return, bringing with him the packages of 
medicine for which he had been sent, each pack- 
age bearing proper labels from the Yuma dis- 
pensary. His appearance there, however, was 
further verified later, and there was no living 
being along the trail between the two places 
from whom he could have obtained any assist- 
ance, even if such were of value to him ; and it 
remains a fact from the very best evidence that 
this Indian ran at least one hundred and fifty 
miles in less than twenty-four hours, and that 
over a barren, stony desert, interspersed with 
deep, dry gulches and ravines, in and out of 
which he was forced to climb, and in addition to 
all of which, swam the river twice. 

Receiving his twenty dollars, he bought 
some choice food, then crawling into the shel- 
ter of a clump of mesquite trees down by the 
river bank, he ate and slept alternately for 
two days, when he reappeared in seemingly 
perfect form, having beaten by far the great- 
est run heretofore ever made by any human 
being, for twenty-four consecutive hours, of 



358 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

which the world has any positive or even re- 
liable evidence. 

The vastness of the great desert which lies 
both to the east and west of the Colorado river, 
is but imperfectly realized by the great ma- 
jority of the intelligent citizens of the country 
to which it belongs. As an instance of this, 
and the solitude born of lack of habitation, 
the incident may be interesting to relate, in 
which the writer, accompanied by a thoughtful 
and well-informed companion and friend, in 
journeying through the great waste bordering 
the river on the east, approached, near the close 
of a day, the head of a wide and barren valley 
up which we had traveled the entire day, and 
where it now, as we could see before us at 
a distance of some thirty miles, terminated in 
a great and perfect amphitheater. It was, how- 
ever, only one of hundreds of such topograph- 
ical features that occur in this boundless waste ; 
yet suggested, perhaps, through the occasional 
speculation one hears indulged in, as to the 
possibility of the lack of standing room upon 
the earth in time to come, owing to its rapidly 
increasing population, we engaged in estimates 
of capacity for its various uses. 

To the east of us a distance of fifteen miles 
lay a low range of mountains; to the west an 
equal distance lay a somewhat lower range, 
while along the foot of its western slope flowed 
the Colorado river. These two ranges were 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 359 

connected at a point about thirty miles ahead, 
by a still lower range. Enclosed by the three 
lay a great arid plain of magnificent area. 
After a mass of calculations engaged in, while 
the team toiled onward through sand and sage- 
brush, we readily deduced the following results. 
That first, in this comparatively insignificant 
enclosure that confronted us, the armies of all 
the nations of the earth could maneuver with 
ample room, and the army of no one nation ap- 
proach within rifle range of that of another. 

Secondly, that herein might be congregated 
the entire human life of the earth, with ample 
room for free movement, while the traveler 
might journey along its borders, ^.ve miles dis- 
tant therefrom, separated by the small ranges 
referred to and remain unconscious of the ex- 
istence of a single being therein. 

Notwithstanding the exploration which had 
been engaged in, and the introduction through- 
out its most remote and inaccessible portions, 
in the past quarter of a century of an advanced 
people and their methods, the noble Colorado 
has retrograded rather than advanced in its use- 
fulness, and to-day shares but little part in the 
great changes of the recent past. The Southern 
Pacific railway, penetrating the most forbid- 
ding portions of the desert from east to west, 
crosses it at Yuma near its mouth, while the 
Atlantic and Pacific railway, following the 
same general course and crossing at Needles, 



360 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

nearly three hundred miles farther north, have 
drained the traffic of the once busy waterway, 
until to-day its broad and shining surface, re- 
mains placid and undisturbed, save at points 
where its waters, circling rapidly, form a huge 
and dangerous whirlpool, the tempestuous, boil- 
ing mass arising from the majestic flood's 
resentment and attack upon some meddlesome 
sand bar which seeks to obstruct its silent, peace- 
ful course, or the silvery wake of an Indian's 
boat as he pilots a pilgrim from the Needles to 
some landing on the river far below. 

The Gila and Mohave, once proud factors in 
the country's reclamation and advancement, and 
whose names were known throughout the land, 
now rest at Yuma, crippled and forlorn, moored 
to the sympathetic shores of that noble stream 
whose waters their ponderous stern wheels will 
never again disturb, patiently awaiting the 
final stroke of the relentless hand of decay. 
While their respective captains through all the 
years of their active service, (and now aged 
men) dwell beside, and linger fondly about their 
loved craft, watching with gradually bedimmed 
sight the growing ruins of their pride. Then 
gazing far up the river to Castle Dome, that 
prominent landmark and point in river navi- 
gation of the past, they lead again, in fancy, 
the proud existence of those good old days, when, 
with boilers steaming from the intense heat of 
"mesquite," "palo verde" and "ironwood," a 
hurrying crowd of deck hands (Mohave In- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 361 

dians) running hither and thither, the cabins 
filled with passengers who paid a high rate of 
fare, their decks loaded to the water's edge with 
merchandise at an equally high rate, they in 
the exuberance of younger life, and in exulta- 
tion over an occupation to which they were fond- 
ly wed, strode proudly the upper deck, fore and 
aft, and from rail to rail, shouting their orders, 
now in Spanish and again in the Mohave 
tongue, to the boat's crew below ; and the great 
stern wheel tore madly at the swift running 
waters of the stream, while the craft forged 
steadily onward against the rapid current, and 
away up the watery pathway and out into the 
glimmer and glare of the heated desert, until 
finally lost to view in the desolate waste about 
Castle Dome. 

It was indeed a curious sight to the onlookers 
who, standing amidst the burning sands of the 
desert, far removed from sight of the river 
and miles distant from its shores, saw for the 
first time the smoke stacks and upper works of 
a steamboat sailing smoothly along through this 
arid waste; its upward course slow in case of 
either high or low water. In low water, the 
shifting channel and numerous sand bars made 
progress slow, while in high water a seven to 
ten-mile per hour current was a formidable 
force to make headway against. Upon the down 
river trip, however, it was different ; there being 
nothing to contend with but snags and whirl- 
pools; and many years ago, during extremely 



362 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

high water in the river, the Mohave is recorded 
as having made the run from the Needles to 
Yuma, a distance of three hundred miles in ten 
hours, much of the distance having been sailed 
a mile or more from the river channel, for the 
Colorado in high water is, at points, many miles 
in width. A whirlpool that would engulf a 
powerful river steamboat of any considerable 
size, is difficult to understand, but the Colorado, 
in high water, abounds with such, in which both 
the Gila and Mohave have been entrapped for 
many hours at a time, and narrowly escaped 
destruction. 

Wherein this great area, particularly that 
lying south of the Atlantic and Pacific railway, 
and between the Rio Grande on the east and 
the San Jacinto range of mountains on the west, 
is, so far as the productiveness of its soil is con- 
cerned, probably as barren and forbidding as 
that to be found in any country, it, taken as 
a whole, furnishes support for a great number 
of range cattle, while the few streams that exist 
have been made to reclaim and render produc- 
tive, small areas within their reach; yet this 
is but a tithing of the real value of this other- 
wise seemingly worthless domain. 

At about the time that the great flood of 
igneous matter was poured out over the north- 
west, another deluge of like character was spread 
over the southwest, covering an area of some 
fifty thousand miles. 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 363 

The intense plutonic action enriched the 
crust of the area through a generous and wide- 
spread distribution of metals, far beyond that 
of the more enormous and still wider spread 
eruptive flood of the northwest. 

Long before the days of Tombstone, or even 
Prescott, and while yet the wily and blood- 
thirsty Apache was monarch of mountain and 
plain, much was known of rich occurrences of 
both gold and silver in this wilderness of rattle- 
snakes, scorpions, cactus and thirst, and numer- 
ous discoveries were made and operations en- 
gaged in on some considerable scale, while 
numberless adventurous prospectors crossed its 
borders and, penetrating too deeply into its fast- 
nesses, remained absent evermore; for the 
Apache guarded well this domain, and under 
Chief Geronimo, administered to all invaders 
caught, punishment so merciless, brutal and re- 
volting, as to shock the most hardened of 
humanity. 

The U. S. soldiers hunted this chief and 
his followers for years with no important result 
other than that this, coupled with increased in- 
vasion of the whites, finally rendered it advis- 
able in the prudent mind of Geronimo to cross 
the border with his band upon important occa- 
sions and rest easily in the fastnesses of the 
Sierra Madre mountains of Mexico until mat- 
ters at home had quieted down a little. They 
had, however, through a long period of active 



364 REMINISCENT EAMBEINGS. 

depredations in the United States, become so 
industrious and ambitious along this line that 
the frequent lengthy and idle sojourns in Mex- 
ico became tame and tiresome, and they resolved 
to liven matters a little by inaugurating mean- 
while a branch department of theft and 
slaughter amongst the Mexicans. This soon 
brought upon them a hunt to the death on the 
part of the Mexican government, when (the bor- 
der being now lined with soldiers and others on 
the American side, and being cornered by the 
Mexicans, and knowing positively that capture 
by them meant being at once lined up and shot 
without trial or parleying of whatsoever nature) 
they stepped over the line and into the more 
tender grasp of the Americans ; while Geronimo 
himself, through all the years which have 
since elapsed has grown into a prominent figure 
down amongst the swamps of the south, to which 
he was transferred. 

This stopped Apache depredations upon a 
large scale, yet there was one young tender root 
of this terrible scourge left, which here in the 
desert grew and flourished and finally engaged 
in business on his own account and single- 
handed for several years committed depreda- 
tions that for boldness made Geronimo appear 
an amateur. 

Over on the Apache reservation was, amongst 
others, a young Apache buck, whose life so 
far had been unattended bv any misdemeanors, 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 365 

or acts of violence, and who was generally re- 
garded as one of the mosttrustworthy of his race. 
The time came when, in a trouble which arose, 
and in which a killing occurred, this young 
Indian played a part (justifiable or otherwise), 
was arrested, tried and convicted with others, 
and sentenced to a term of imprisonment at the 
penitentiary in Yuma. He grieved deeply over 
the result, but showed no resentment when they 
all started for their new home in a stage coach 
attended by two officers heavily armed. 

Reaching a long, steep hill en route, the 
officers alighted to walk behind the coach, and 
this young Indian asked the privilege also, when 
the officers, removing the shackles from his 
ankles (but remaining handcuffed), permitted 
him to do so. 

Walking between the officers, he after a time 
dropped slightly in the rear, made a quick jump, 
grabbed a six shooter from the hip of one of 
the officers, shot them both dead, then took a 
long shot at the driver of the stage coach some 
distance ahead, and hitting him in the head the 
ball glanced, but being stunned, he fell from his 
seat, while the four-mule team ran away with 
the balance of the convicts. 

Approaching the fallen driver, (who had 
now regained consciousness, but who adroitly 
concealed it) the Indian examined him care- 
fully, when becoming convinced that he was 
dead, and not wishing to waste ammunition, 
passed on, and out upon the boldest and most 



366 REMINISCENT RAMBLINOS. 

successful career of crime ever engaged in by 
human kind, and became known to the world 
thereafter as the " Apache kid." 

Bordering the Rio San Pedro on the north- 
east for a distance of more than fifty miles lies 
a mountain chain known as the Caliuro range, 
which, for ruggedness and inaccessibility, is un- 
surpassed. 

And here in its most remote fastnesses the 
a Apache kid" established himself, and alone, 
bid defiance to the world, and through a con- 
tinuous carnival of the most atrocious crimes, 
executed by himself alone, existed for years, 
though the territories of New Mexico and Ari- 
zona offered a combined reward of nine thou- 
sand dollars for him dead or alive; while the 
government troops hunted him almost contin- 
uously, and, fearful of finding him, each time 
conveniently lost the trail when it led them too 
far into the rocky defiles of the Caliuros. The 
"cow punchers" on the San Pedro for years 
wisely refrained from the attempt to "round 
up" cattle that had entered the range. His 
deeds were so bold, and his movements so adroit 
and invisible that, although the members of his 
own tribe feared him equally with the whites, 
they refused to engage in hunting him, believ- 
ing him to be possessed of uncanny powers, 
and incapable of being harmed. 

Although the "kid" had, during his entire 
reign, so far scrupulously avoided contact with 
any human being, save when engaged in lifting 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 367 

their scalp lock, the time finally came when the 
idea gained possession of his mind that it was 
no longer well for him to dwell alone, and so 
one day, impelled by the desperation of loneli- 
ness and love, he rode boldly down from his 
mountain lair and out upon the reservation, and 
lying in wait well outside the encampments, a 
lone Apache maiden, strolling aimlessly about 
and unconsciously coming near his hiding, the 
"kid" swooping down upon his prey, threw a 
rope about her, and pulling her upon the ani- 
mal's back with himself, dashed back into the 
fastnesses of the Caliuros. 

It was but a short time following this bold 
proceeding when "Hualapai" Clark, an old 
scout and Indian fighter, and incidentally a 
prospector, having a mining claim near the foot 
of the western slope of the range, determined 
to take chances with the a kid" for a few days 
and go up and perform the annual labor neces- 
sary to hold his property. Reaching there, his 
experienced eye was not long in detecting in and 
about the cabin unmistakable signs of the daring 
young red man, and Hualapai farther realizing 
that his arrival had not been accomplished un- 
noticed by the wily "kid" and not unmindful of 
the "kid's love of horse flesh, picketed the pack 
animal in a remote and open spot, and filling 
the magazine of his Winchester with cartridges, 
crept into a neighboring thicket and camped for 
the night. Long and anxiously he waited, when 
at last his vigil was rewarded by a slight move- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

ment of the underbrush on the opposite side 
of the opening, and a form emerged from the 
darkness of the thicket and stole cautiously 
toward the animal. Hualapai raised his rifle 
to fire, when silently another form stole forth 
following the first. A sharp crack of the Win- 
chester, and the leader, with a piercing scream, 
fell dead. Not yet had the body struck the 
ground, when the flash of a second rifle in the 
hands of the one that followed, for an instant 
lit up the scene, and a ball sped dangerously 
close to Hualapai in his hiding, while as sud- 
denly the form disappeared in the depths of the 
shelter from which it had emerged. 

When the morning light dawned upon the 
scene of these midnight doings, there, clutching 
in a death grasp the picket rope of the pack 
animal, lay the "kid's" unwilling and now eman- 
cipated bride, whom her foxy mate had sent 
before him to draw the fire of the watchful 
Hualapai. 

But a few days had elapsed since this event- 
ful night when the writer, wandering late in the 
day along the San Pedro, sought lodging at the 
home of a settler not far removed from the scene 
described, and retiring to the guest's chamber, 
found therein artistically draped, as a mural 
decoration, the blood-stained and bullet-rent 
robe of the dusky departed denizen of the 
Caliuros. 

Alone in the anger and possible grief of his 
loss, the "kid" now so increased the boldnesss of 



EEMIJSISCENT RAMBLINGS. 369 

his depredations as to for the time completely 
dull the luster of his previous record. Then 
suddenly, and forever since, his footprints 
ceased to mark the sands of the San Pedro, 
while the grim and silent Caliuros that sheltered 
him so long breathe evermore no tale of his 
mysterious disappearance. 



CHAPTEE XVII. 

From the Little Colorado river, and even far- 
ther north into Utah, all through the great des- 
ert area of Arizona and well into Mexico on the 
south, exists a copper resource which will in 
time be demonstrated (if not already) to be 
the greatest in the known world. That portion in 
the United States, beginning at the Colorado 
river on the west, and extending easterly well 
over the line into JSTew Mexico, embraces evi- 
dences of the general distribution of the ores of 
this metal which, coupled with the already dem- 
onstrated occurrences of commercial value, 
leave no question of its coming importance, 
and probable dominance for all time of any 
other like area in the production of copper. 

High upon the face of the Black range that 
borders the Rio Verde on the west rests the 
busy town of Jerome, built about and existing 
wholly through the operations of that greatest 
of all copper mines, the "United Verde," which, 
with the constant outpouring of smoke and sul- 
phurous fumes from the stacks of its great re- 
duction works, together with that of the acres 
of open air roasts with which the face of the 
mountain is clothed, gives to the traveler along 
the banks of the Rio Verde, far below, the im- 
pression that the plutonic agencies are again at 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 371 

work away up there near the summit of the dark, 
forbidding igneous uplift, and he shudders 
slightly at the thought, as the little narrow 
gauge train appears rounding the northern ex- 
tremity of the range, and creeping slowly along 
its precipitous face, deliberately enters and is 
swallowed up in the seeming caldron of fire, 
smoke and brimstone. 

The ores of this great mine are in sulphide, 
or unchanged form, and of high grade. The oc- 
currence is in outline a great lenticular mass 
set upon edge, and already being operated sev- 
eral thousand feet in length and five hundred 
and more feet in depth. In the ground already 
opened, there is at all times in sight, not less 
than a hundred millions of dollars worth of ore, 
while the amount already extracted and treated 
is far greater than this. And now to more 
fully impress the reader with the magnitude 
and wealth of this storehouse of copper, it may 
be stated that from the bottom of the present 
workings, borings have been made with Dia- 
mond drills of such depth and over so great 
areas as to determine fully the existence in 
unopened ground of an ore body whose value, 
conservatively estimated, reaches nearly, if not 
quite, half a billion of dollars. 

When the reader reflects upon the fact that 
more than ninety per cent, of this great mine 
is the property of a single individual, there re- 
mains little occasion for alarm over his inability 
to secure the necessaries of life until such time 



372 REMINISCENT EAMBEINGS. 

at least, as he can secure more remunerative 
employment. 

A hundred miles and more southeast of the 
United Verde, and at Globe, on a fork of Salt 
river, occurs other great producing properties, 
also at Clifton and Morenci, on the headwaters 
of the Gila, But by far greater than these is 
that of the "Copper Queen" company at Bisbee, 
in the southern terminus of the "Mule" moun- 
tains and near the Mexico border. Here where 
for miles the line of demarcation between a 
great field of gray lime and an equally great 
field of decidedly red porphyretic rocks is so 
sharp and clearly defined that a comparatively 
short-legged man, walking with the feet well 
apart, may travel almost the entire length of the 
contact with an individual formation for each 
foot to rest upon, and the whole through the con- 
tact of separate and distinct coloring noted for 
many miles before reaching it. There occurred, 
here upon the slopes of a dry arroya, in the field 
of lime, yet near the line of contact of the two 
formations referred to, a "blow-out" of carbon- 
ate of copper ores, the vivid blues and greens of 
which subdued the colors of the surrounding 
formations and caught the eye of the observer 
from afar. It was a small exposure of less than 
a hundred feet in diameter, but which, followed 
down into the limes, opened into a great chamber 
of fine ore, but which, soon exhausted, left no 
evidence, save little seams, at times no thicker 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 373 

than the blade of a knife, extending into the 
naked walls of lime. The owners were about 
to withdraw from further operation when a 
trusted employee in charge of the work, appealed 
so strongly to be allowed to explore the sur- 
roundings, offering to receive his pay in stock 
of the now exhausted property, and farther, to 
contribute from his own savings toward the un- 
dertaking, he was, through a desire to humor 
him, permitted to continue. Following one of 
the little stringers, he soon plunged into a second 
chamber; and thus the system of exploration 
has continued and chamber after chamber been 
disclosed covering hundreds of acres of the ter- 
ritory of lime down deep in which, connecting 
the multitude of ore bodies and their intricate 
workings, (wherein two thousand or more men 
are working) exists a hundred miles or more 
of underground railway for gathering the ore 
and transporting it to the great hoists for de- 
livery to the surface and into the furnaces await- 
ing it ; more than enough miles of railway in this 
one mine ^.ve hundred feet and more beneath the 
surface, to reach from New York to Philadel- 
phia, while hundreds of miles of standard-guage 
railway owned by, or constructed wholly in con- 
sequence of the production of this great mine, 
together with others owned by the same company 
at Nacozari, a short distance over the line in 
Mexico, and which reach to junctions with the 
Southern Pacific at El Paso, Texas, and Benson, 
Arizona, and again to junctions with both the 



374 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Southern Pacific and the Atchison, Topeka and 
Santa Ee railways at Deming in New Mexico, 
find ample traffic. 

The ores of the Copper Queen are almost 
wholly in carbonate form, and though being of a 
far lower grade than those of the United Verde, 
averaging, as they do, less than eight per cent, 
of metallic copper per ton of crude ore, still 
possess upon an average, double the values of the 
ores at Butte, Montana, and four times those 
of Michigan and the famous Rio Tinto in Spain, 
though the values are far more expensive of 
extraction than in the case of the two latter. 

A feature of copper ores is their occurrence 
in nearly every known formation of the earth, 
and (as a rule) to greater depths than 
those of precious metals. In the great cop- 
per mines of the United States, silver, and 
frequently gold, occurs in the upper zone of 
the ore bodies, usually, however, disappear- 
ing at about five hundred feet in depth. 
More especially since the days of the conquest 
by Cortez, the Mexicans have to some consid- 
erable extent employed copper ; and wherein the 
metal abounds in almost unlimited quantities 
within the present borders of their own land, it 
occurred with the exception of an extremely 
small percentage, locked in the embrace of varied 
combines with other elements forming as a whole 
an ore mass containing a comparatively small 
proportion of metallic copper, and that through 
the then known methods difficult to obtain. The 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 375 

extremely small percentage referred to of oc- 
currences other than this being that of native 
copper or the extremely high grade ores, such 
as chalcocite and cuprite, all of which occur 
everywhere in extremely limited quantities, 
these early searchers after the metal were com- 
pelled to cover great areas in obtaining the re- 
quired amount and thus extended their opera- 
tions into what is now Arizona and New Mex- 
ico, where to-day may be seen and entered a 
labyrinth of old workings at various points, to- 
gether with the impregnable quarters for pro- 
tection which hundreds of years since they 
erected, usually circular in form, and of either 
adobe or stone; for the Apache exercised then 
the same guardianship and administered the 
same punishment as since. At the "Aja" copper 
mine, fifty miles south of Gila bend on the 
Southern Pacific railway, and in Santa Rita 
basin, twelve miles from the present town of 
Silver City, in New Mexico, yet remain notable 
examples of these ancient workings. 

Long antecedent to the advent of the Mex- 
icans in these lands which are now a portion of 
the United States, there here lived and dwelt 
another race of beings. A race other than that 
of the North American Indians, and agricul- 
tural in their pursuits, as determined through 
the many evidences which remain. 

Through all that great area extending from 
the southern portion of Colorado on the north, 



376 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

far away to the east and west throughout New 
Mexico and Arizona, and well down the shores 
of the Colorado to its mouth, are scattered the 
bones of these people, together with the ruins 
of their work. There were, in fact, two races 
occupying the same territory, but whether or 
not contemporaneous is uncertain. The one is 
known as Aztec, the other as "Cliff Dwellers/' 
Their habits seem to have been in common, aside 
from the habitations in which they lodged. The 
Aztecs dwelt in structures of stone and adobe 
scattered throughout the valleys, while the Cliff 
Dwellers, (who incidentally were somewhat in- 
ferior in stature) made their dwelling places in 
the shallow caverns, or eroded recesses, high 
upon the face of the sandstone cliffs of nearby 
canons. The front of these caverns were closed 
with a masonry wall, and access was obtained 
only through ladders which, upon entering their 
abode, they pulled up after them. They evi- 
dently feared an enemy unknown to the Aztec 
of the valley, but whether such was the Aztecs 
themselves or another is unknown. 

In pursuance of professional duties other 
than that of archaeology, the writer has 
spent much time in various districts scat- 
tered over the great area mentioned and 
abounding with the evidences of this long- 
forgotten race. Thickly studding large areas 
are to be seen mounds of various sizes over- 
grown with sage and other vegetation, and 
ofttimes shaded by gnarled and knotted pinon 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 377 

trees of so great an age as to now be in process 
of decay ; the life of these alone being known to 
be hundreds of years, marks to this extent the 
antiquity of the mound itself. And what are 
these strange hummocks rising with such regu- 
larity from an otherwise smooth surface? A 
little open cut extended into its interior from 
the level of its surroundings, discloses in every 
case the foundations of an abode. Drifting 
around the outer edge of these, the doorway will 
be found inside of which (in the more preten- 
tious) will be unearthed partition walls while in 
all will be found a greater or less amount of 
pottery; mostly broken, of course, through the 
falling in of the ruins. 

If, however, one wishes to secure specimens 
of this intact, (much of which is quite desirable) 
it may, with far greater chances of success be 
accomplished by trenching the surface at a point 
about fifty feet due south of the mound; for 
it seems to have been the custom for each fam- 
ily to have its private cemetery at this point, 
and a further custom in burying their dead to 
place on either side of the head an urn or other 
piece of pottery closely sealed, (apparently the 
choicest the family possessed) and containing 
food. And therein, in recent years, the writer, 
in pursuance of such research, or possibly what 
might more properly be termed vandalism, has 
found the bones of turkeys, together with the 
kernels of maize, parched and apparently in 



378 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

as perfect state of preservation as upon the 
funeral day. 

In the Montezuma valley, near the northern 
boundary of Arizona, the exploration of one of 
these mounds discloses the walls of a building 
eighty feet square, its interior being divided 
by masonry walls into rectangular, circular and 
triangular rooms, while the loftiness of the 
mound would indicate that the building must 
originally have been a hundred feet or more in 
height. 

In the Aztec valley immediately south of the 
Montezuma, a settler in search of water through 
sinking, noticed, at a point near, a series of 
shallow depressions strikingly circular in form, 
and twelve or fifteen feet in diameter. Having 
so far been unsuccessful^ and thinking that per- 
haps these might mark the location of water 
supplies of the extinct race, he selected one and 
began digging, when at a depth of about fifteen 
feet he suddenly encountered a mass of human 
skeletons entangled in the most disorderly man- 
ner, and at the time of the writer's visit the 
depth of the deposit was undetermined, though a 
score or more had been removed. A greater 
portion of the skulls were so badly fractured 
as to be incapable of restoration, yet of eight 
recovered in a fair state of preservation, each 
was crushed at a point just behind and slightly 
above the right ear, and covering an area ranging 
from the size of a silver dollar to the palm of 
one's hand. Evidently these beings were exe- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 379 

cuted either for crimes, or as offerings to their 
gods; though this was not the method of the 
Aztecs of the valley of Mexico, of which there 
is written history, their method being that of 
holding the victim upon the sacrificial stone 
while the priest, with an obsidian knife, cut 
open the breast, and tearing out the palpitating 
heart, held it up to the image of the god to be 
appeased. 

In various parts of the lands where the ruins 
of this race exist are still traceable, long lines of 
dim grades which were evidently at one time 
canals for the irrigation of lands. These lines are 
as artfully located and the grades as accurately 
established as in the modern canal of to-day, 
occupying the same territory, and constructed 
for the same purposes. In fact, instances exist 
wherein the modern canal follows the site of 
the ancient waterway for considerable distances. 

Though unmistakably agricultural, little evi- 
dence is presented of their being pastoral; no 
bones of domestic animals save turkey bones 
are to be found even in the provision jars which 
invariably accompany the dead, while there is 
little cause for belief that these were domestic 
birds, from the fact that great portions of the 
land abounded with wild turkeys until recent 
years, while many are yet to be found. 

About the more thickly settled portions, the 
soil is yet strewn with fragments of their pot- 
tery, in the decoration of which the writer has, 
in several instances, detected the perfect Egyp- 



380 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

tian border. Can it be that this lost race were 
once in connection with those people, from whom 
they were forever exiled, possibly through the 
submerged Atlantis ? However, there remains 
excellent reasons for belief that their existence 
is possessed of far greater antiquity than is 
given credit for by the few historians and still 
fewer archaeologists who have discussed the 
subject. The Aztecs of the valley of Mexico at 
the time of the appearance of Cortez knew noth- 
ing of the existence of these so-called Aztecs to 
the north. And when later bands of these in- 
vaders, believing that other great cities with 
temples filled with gold and silver and precious 
stones, like unto which they had just conquered 
and despoiled, existed far away in this north- 
land, and made invasions herein, they found 
only these same ruins, as ancient to all appear- 
ance then as now. 

Again amongst these dead and their ruins 
exist ample evidence of their taste for personal 
adornment. Necklaces, rings and other decora- 
tive articles, made from bone, chalcedony and 
other substances are found in profusion, but 
none of gold and silver, and yet they dwelt in 
the very heart of regions abounding with the 
precious metals of which they seemed to possess 
no knowledge whatever. 

Wherein it appears from the habits and pot- 
tery of each, and aside from the fashioning of 
their abodes, and from the difference in stature, 
that the Aztecs and Cliff Dwellers were of the 



EEMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 381 

same race, jet there is much in evidence that 
they were not contemporaneous, though little 
whereby to determine with any degree of ac- 
curacy the intervening interval; the more ad- 
vanced destruction of the works of the so-called 
Aztec of the valleys through natural disinte- 
gration and decay points unmistakably to their 
occupancy of the country having antedated by 
many generations, and centuries perhaps, that 
of the Cliff Dwellers. Again no remains of the 
former are found except in a state of systematic 
burial, while in the case of the latter, their skel- 
etons and mummified forms are found strewn 
upon the floors of the dwellings they occupied, 
pointing significantly to the fact of their having 
been overtaken and overwhelmed by some cat- 
aclysm from which they were unable to escape. 
And what this terrible entrapment from 
which they were unable to extricate themselves 
and flee? Far away up a rugged canon, and 
high up in the sedimentary cliffs that formed 
its southern walls, appears the masonry front 
that closes the mouth of a great recess and forms 
a home as yet undisturbed by vandals ; this arti- 
ficial front is so neatly constructed and the 
storms and stains of centuries have so artfully 
spread the mantle o'er it that marks the handi- 
work of nature, that the observer looks long and 
questions much its being a home of this ancient 
race; moreover, the glass fails to detect any evi- 
dence of the low, narrow opening or entrance 
through which they crawled, but which, after 



382 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

nearer approach, through toilsome and hazardous 
climbing, reveals itself, closed and sealed from 
within. The work in no manner provided, or 
was it evidently intended to provide protection 
to the inmates against a forceful foe from with- 
out, for a slight pressure of the shoulder, and 
the mass falls inward upon the floor. Entering, 
we find strewn about the apartments, nine mum- 
mified forms lying upon their faces, the arms 
folded closely about the head, as though to shut 
out some horrifying vision, or exclude some 
deadly gas; and in defense against the latter 
there is little question but that these efforts were 
made ; for round about the country below exists 
successive sheets of eruptive flows, long hard- 
ened into rock, entrapped and submerged by the 
last of which we find varied examples of the 
works of these people, here a stone axe of 
paleolithic pattern, there a fragment of pottery, 
and finally the perfect moulds of a mass of ears 
of Indian corn, which engulfed in the molten 
mass were finally consumed, leaving only the 
cavity they occupied, upon the walls of which are 
faithfully preserved their minutest imprint; 
moreover, in some instances the charred kernels 
still adhere to the surrounding surfaces. And 
thus (our geological conclusions being anywhere 
within the very outer limits of approximate ac- 
curacy) we are brought face to face with the fact 
that these beings here dwelt and finally became 
extinct, through an agency that presented itself 
long, long before even the first of the great ice 



EEMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 383 

caps crept down from the north, or the waters 
of their melting created the terraces called 
"Champlain." Hence, might they say unto the 
earliest of the Egyptians of which there appears 
even the vaguest tradition, even as these Egyp- 
tians said unto the early Greeks, "Ye are but 
children and know nothing of the past." 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

To one who has traveled long through Texas 
and the^ southern portions of New Mexico, Ar- 
izona and California, there comes finally a de- 
sire to wander over the border and far away into 
that sunlit land to the south — Mexico. A land 
luxuriant in its fruits and vegetation, grand in 
the noble forests that clothe its imposing moun- 
tain chains, and in its towering stately palms 
that adorn the intervening vales, far beyond be- 
lief in the mind of the observer who first gazes 
upon that forbidding and seemingly limitless 
expanse, which, prevailing over so great an area 
in the United States, stretches far over into this 
adjacent realm. A land wherein existed treas- 
ure and works of art, filling palaces and temples 
without number, of matchless magnificence and 
grand architecture, of themselves ancient, yet 
their foundations resting upon the ruins of oth- 
ers equally great, of which no history recites the 
tale or even vague tradition murmurs. 

For the authentic historv of these people 
dates back no further than about six hundred 
years after the birth of Christ, when the Toltees 
made their appearance in the valley of Mexico ; 
not entirely as strangers, for evidence goes to 
show that they were simply returning home 
from a pilgrimage into the far North, where 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 385 

they were for so many centuries engaged in 
building mounds in the valleys of the Ohio, Mis- 
sissippi and Missouri rivers that upon their re- 
turn only the ruins of their earlier work re- 
mained. Selecting probably the first they came 
to of these ruined cities of their ancestors (for 
there were many more of theirs or others far- 
ther to the south), they restored it, or built a 
new one upon its ruins and named it "Tula," 
now a station of the Mexican Central Eailway, 
a short distance north of the City of Mexico, and 
still bearing its original name; and here to-day 
may be seen the ruins of both the restoration and 
the original. This is but an instance of the 
antiquity of this race possessing a high civil- 
ization so far as measured through works of 
art and the construction of great temples and 
palaces, massive and indestructible, grand, im- 
pressive and beautiful in architectural lines, 
and striking in the elaborate and ornate sculp- 
turing of their walls. 

Even in the valley of Mexico, of which the 
earliest history treats, there are numerous ruins 
believed to be far older than those of Tula ; 
amongst which there are many pyramids; of 
these there are two, that of the moon and an- 
other of the sun, which are of enormous propor- 
tions. The latter measures over seven hundred 
feet square at its base, and over two hundred 
feet in height. Another, the pyramid of Cho- 
lula, is nearly 1,500 feet square at its base, and 



386 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

covers more than forty acres, much larger than 
any of those of Egypt. 

For over four hundred years this race of Tol- 
tec mound builders, returning from the North, 
remained in the valley, when, migrating, it is 
believed to the South, their general disappear- 
ance being in time noted by a neighboring race, 
the Chichimecs (vastly inferior to the Toltecs 
in point of civilization), they crept cautiously 
into the vacant valley, then called "Anahuac" 
by these early people, meaning "by the water 
side," from the chain of lakes occupying the 
valley, and about whose shores they largely 
dwelt. These were soon followed by other 
tribes, the last and most formidable of which 
were called "Aztecs/' and came from a land 
called Aztlan, wherever that may have been, 
said, however, to have been located far to the 
north or northwest. Tradition further says 
that even this indefinite location was not the 
land of their origin, and that the earliest home 
of the race was far to the south, about Yucatan 
or Guatemala, and that like the Toltecs, they 
wandered to this foreign abode, where they dwelt 
for ages, and like 1 them, were now simply return- 
ing toward the land of their nativity. At all 
events, they proceeded no farther, but settling 
here, they rapidly absorbed and grew into a 
dominance of all those tribes which had preceded 
them, and multiplied and grew strong and more 
civilized, aside from the creation en route of a 
wood or stone image of a war god called Huit- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 6b i 

zilopochtle, from the leader of their band Huitr 
ziton, who' had died on the journey. And to 
which image in time to come there was in all 
probability offered up as sacrifice, more human 
lives than to any other on earth. 

And here in this valley of Anahuac at the 
end of 300 years or thereabouts, this race of Az- 
tecs (who upon their journey hither had named 
themselves "Mexicans") had thrived and grown 
strong and became the dominant power amongst 
the numerous small tribes with which they inter- 
mingled, and who had preceded them by a hun- 
dred years. 

In the search for a camping spot as described 
through the oracle of their war god, they came to 
a rocky point extending into the lake, where, 
perched upon a cactus, with its wings, out- 
stretched toward the rising sun, holding in its 
beak a. serpent, sat an eagle of great size, the 
emblem of the present flag of Mexico. This 
was at once accepted as an omen of good, indi- 
cating a site for their city, which was immedi- 
ately founded and named Tenochtitlan, the name 
being later changed to Mexico, and here by the 
greatest of lakes, "Texcoco," and upon the site 
of the present City of Mexico, had created a 
city even greater in many respects than the pres- 
ent one, and therein, and throughout the coun- 
try occupied by them there seems to have later 
been attained a high moral standard, a rapid ad- 
vancement and a generally peaceful, happy con- 
dition, aside from the frequent wars waged upon 



OOO REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

neighboring tribes who vet maintained a sepa- 
rate government, incited in each case almost 
wholly through the demands of a religious rite, 
in the practice of which these people grew into 
a greater and greater belief, into a deeper and 
deeper fanaticism through the teachings and 
blind following of a brutal, beastly priesthood. 
And herein alone in the lives of these people 
seems to have existed the one condition, if any, 
which in the slightest degree may be employed 
to warrant or excuse the subjugation, with its 
attendant infamous outrages, so soon to be vis- 
ited upon them. For this god of theirs, "Huit- 
zilopochtle," whose creation and acceptance oc- 
curred during their journey from Aztlan, ap- 
pears to have been a healthy offspring, and in 
the 300 years which followed, to have grown 
into so insatiable a monster that its hunger for 
human life was difficult to appease through 
those of their own race who in any manner mer- 
ited death; hence war was waged upon outside 
races for the sole purpose of obtaining prisoners 
wherewith to keep the larder of this ravenous 
deity stocked. Finally, and not more than a 
quarter of a century prior to the landing of 
Columbus, they had fully completed and added 
to the noble structures of this otherwise beauti- 
ful city a great temple of stone, its interior 
filled with earth against which its walls battered, 
the summit being a great level surface paved 
with stone and surmounted by two towers, in one 
of which was placed this terrible god of war. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 389 

King Ahuitzotl, under whom the temple was 
completed, and who being one of those most 
thoroughly governed by the horrible priesthood 
and its doctrine, believing that the displeasure 
of the gods could only be averted and their good 
will maintained through the shedding of tor- 
rents of blood, had for several years prior to the 
completion of the temple resolved to render its 
dedication an event long to be remembered, and 
to this end had for a lengthy period cut short 
the rations of this god, and waged war contin- 
uously and hoarded his prisoners carefully, that 
an offering might be made upon this occasion 
that would not only please the god, but would 
wipe out all previous records, and incidentally 
impress other tribes (with which he was at war, 
and to whom he took occasion to extend invita- 
tions) with his great superiority. The dedica- 
tion ceremonies lasted four days, during which 
time historians agree that sixty thousand human 
beings were led to the summit of this temple 
(which stood upon the exact spot where the great 
cathedral of the City of Mexico now stands), 
and being cast upon their backs across the sac- 
rificial stone, a priest cut open the breast with 
an obsidian knife, when plunging his hand into 
the wound, tore out and held up to the image of 
this frightful god the palpitating heart. The 
bodies were cast to the throng in the great square 
below, while the blood flowing in torrents down 
the sloping walls drenched the ground upon 
which they stood. Six millions of people are 



390 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

said to have been present at this carnival of 
blood, where the king acted as master of cere- 
monies and commenced the work with his own 
hands. Throughout Mexico to> this day the 
people employ the name Ahuitzotl as the syno- 
nym of monster. 

Ahuitzotl was succeeded by the second Mon- 
tezuma, who differed widely from his uncle, the 
great. Montezuma, and who from the standpoint 
of priestly and beastly practices was not far be- 
hind Ahuitzotl. It occurred to him that the 
sacrificial stone then in use was not in keeping 
with the new temple and so sought a new one, 
which was found in the form of a great block 
of basalt, and being first hewn into circular form 
and a bowl carved in its center, with a trench 
leading therefrom for the collection and con- 
veyance of blood, the whole was then elaborately 
carved and transported to its place upon the 
summit of the temple; at its dedication which 
immediately followed, the blood of twelve thou- 
sand human wretches was spilled upon its face, 
drained into the bowl, and flowed away through 
the connecting gutter. This stone may to-day 
be seen in the museum of the City of Mexico, 
together with the stone idol for the revolting 
uses of which it served. All this portrays the 
deep, dark shadow of cruelty and repulsiveness 
born of the blind following of a false belief 
which overhung this otherwise advanced and 
happy people, who in art and science were so 
proficient that works of gold and silver sent 



KEMLNTSCENT RAMBLINGS. 391 

home to the robber king of Spain by bis bandits, 
astonished the artisans of the old world in their 
elegance of design and exquisite workmanship. 
In architecture they were superb, while of as- 
tronomy and botany they knew much. 

~Noh all of the great monolithic emblems of 
this race which to-day throng the gallery of the 
museum of Mexico represent such lamentable 
customs as that of the two previously mentioned. 
The great calendar stone which confronts one as 
he enters is a great circular block of basalt, 
elaborately carved, and through its design and 
divisions clearly indicates the calendar idea 
and their knowledge of the measurement of 
time. -j- 

Two' years before the landing of Cortez, run- 
ners had carried the news to the Mexican capitol 
of the landing of a strange people from a strange 
craft upon the shores, of Yucatan ; it was the 
Spanish explorer, Cordova. The following year 
news was brought of still another appearing in 
the gulf near the present city of Vera Cruz; 
this was Don Juan de Grijalva. In the year 
following this Cortez appeared near the same 
spot as Grijalva, and making a final landing 
April 21st, 1519, burned his ships whereby to 
thwart any attempt at return upon the part of 
his already discontented followers, and started 
in upon the most cruel and diabolical system of 
robbery, rapine and murder that history gives 
any account of on the part of a civilized race pro- 
fessing the Christian faith. 



392 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Attacking the first tribe he came in contact 
with, he created such slaughter and final terror 
through the use of fire arms, together with men 
mounted on horses, all of which they had never 
seen or heard, they soon not only surrendered 
to avoid apparent extinction, but readily became 
their allies; after first giving up to these free- 
booters all their wealth, together with the 
choice of such of their wives and daughters as 
these fiends desired, who before prostituting 
these unfortunate women caused them to be bap- 
tised, and preached to by an accompanying rev- 
erend father, a pious old scoundrel named Bar- 
tolome Olmedo, who told them of all the good 
and beautiful things connected solely with the 
holy faith, after which they were parceled out 
as mistresses to a beastly soldiery. Through 
these allies they now learned definitely of a 
marvelous wealth stored in the Mexican capitol, 
and thither directed their march ; this evidence 
was soon further corroborated through the acts 
of the weak king, Montezuma, then reigning 
there, who being advised of their approach, sent 
envoy after envoy to meet them, each laden with 
presents of gold and silver, which they freely 
gave, at the same time imploring them to retrace 
their steps, and thus this foolish king hastened 
the destruction designed for himself and his 
race, little realizing that he was sending forth a 
bait for which these villainous sharks would 
stop at nothing, even the bartering of their own 
souls. Step by step, they drew nearer the ob- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 393 

jeet of their avaricious desire, stopping only to 
pillage and murder by the way, until finally en- 
tering the city with their multitude of allies 
(who were themselves deadly enemies of the 
Mexicans) and under professions of the deepest 
friendship, they at once commenced intriguing 
for its capture. Soon, while being entertained 
in the most lavish manner as his guests, they 
made the king a captive and forced him to ad- 
vise quiet and obedience on the part of his sub- 
jects; but the treachery of the Spaniards, to- 
gether with the weakness of their sovereign, had 
created a hatred and disgust too deep to bear, 
and rising in arms they sought the liberation of 
their monarch and the death of the intruders. 
Again Montezuma was forced to show himself to 
his outraged subjects and advise them to desist. 
Frenzied at his submission to such a purpose, his 
nephew, Guatemotzin, standing near, shot an 
arrow into his body, while others pelted the 
dead body with stones and clubs. Thus ended 
the great Montezuma, who was succeeded by 
Cuitlahuiatzin, who dying in a few months, was 
succeeded by Guatemotzin, who in the frenzy of 
his disgust had killed his uncle, Montezuma. 

Cortez and his allies had meantime been 
driven from the city with a slaughter so great 
that his power was wrecked, and had the Mexi- 
cans chosen to have followed up their advantage, 
might have easily exterminated them. 

And now while Cortez and the remnant of 
his followers lay sullenly outside the city nurs- 



394 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

ing their wrath and wounds, with Cbrtez sitting 
during an entire night beneath a great cypress 
tree (which may yet be seen in the outskirts of 
the city, and called "The tree of La Noche 
Triste"), weeping at the loss of his power, and 
the Mexicans were rising about them until there 
seemed no possible escape, reinforcements came 
from Cuba. With these, making a combined 
force of six hundred Spaniards, with a battery 
of nine cannon, together with one hundred and 
twenty-five thousand Tlascallan allies and fifty 
thosuand Tozcocoans, Cbrtez commenced a siege 
of the city, now defended by the brave Guate- 
motzin. Mercilessly this horde attacked the be- 
sieged Mexicans, setting fire to the buildings as 
they pressed about, and shutting off all supplies. 
Desperately the Mexicans fought, scorning sur- 
render, and by decoying them into ambush 
made such havoc in their ranks as to cause them 
for a time to falter, finally, however, weak from 
starvation, they were forced to the last trench, 
the city's center, when with fiendish desperation 
they were rushed upon from all sides and slain 
like sheep, until the streets, the squares and the 
courts of buildings were so covered with the 
dead that travel was impossible without stepping 
upon them. 

Guatemotzin was captured, and in forcing 
him to divulge the hiding of treasure in addition 
to that taken from Montezuma upon their pre- 
vious possession of the city, the Spaniards 
soaked his feet in oil and burned them over a 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 395 

slow fire. This brought forth, however, no con- 
fession from the brave, unyielding Guateniot- 
zin, save the exultant reply that he had cast it 
into the lake. To-day a fine statue of this noble 
defender of his race, and the last of the Aztec 
kings may be seen rising proudly from the cen- 
ter of one of the Grlorietas, or great circles of 
the Paseo leading to Chapultepec. 

The Aztecs or Mexicans now fully conquered 
and their city and stronghold in ruins, Spanish 
triumph was complete save the subjugation of 
numerous small and unimportant tribes, and 
Spanish rule at once began. Much, of which 
we will ever remain utterly ignorant, concerning 
the Aztecs might have been given to> the world 
had it not been for the act of that iconoclastic 
and bigoted priest, the first Archbishop of Mex- 
ico, Don Juan Zumarraga, who caused to be 
gathered up and burned all of their records, 
which were in the form of picture writings. 

The government of this country henceforth 
by the Spaniards is too well known to require 
detailed discussion or description herein. The 
Viceroys of the Vice Eegal system installed were 
in most part effete members of nobility, ex- 
hausted in purse and devoid of principle, who 
as autocratic rulers of this new and far distant 
possession, saw an opportunity to quickly re- 
plenish their wasted fortunes-, and lost no time 
in so doing, to the end that between the enforced 
system of contributions on the part of the sub- 



396 REMINISCENT RAMBUNGS. 

jects for the fattening of these viceroys, the enor- 
mous tax levied for the benefit of the king and 
the ostentatious home government in Spain, 
coupled with, the continued abuses by that gov- 
ernment particularly under that monster of ini- 
quity, Phillip the Second, through whom the 
terrors of Inquisition were now introduced in 
his new dominion (then called Euevo Espana), 
together with a practical enslavement of the na- 
tive population, placed these poor people in a po- 
sition pitiable in the extreme ; a condition which 
they endured, however, for nearly three hundred 
years, when of a sudden unheralded and unat- 
tended by pomp or display there emerged from 
the wilderness to the south in the year 1803 and 
entered their land an individual, unpretentious, 
yet greater than all the viceroys of Mexico, 
greater than all the kings or queens of Spain or 
any other country who had yet lived or who 
have ever since lived, for he, the illustrious Yon 
Humboldt, gave to these people (as he did to 
other nations) more truths and a greater knowl- 
edge of their country's resources than they had 
gained in all time preceding. 

The successful attempt at independence on 
the part of the American Colonists (together 
with the awakening received, quickened trade, 
and generally improved conditions, arising from 
the war between Spain and England, wherein 
through fear of transporting the product of the 
mines to the mother country on account of Eng- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 397 

lish privateers with which the seas swarmed, it 
was forced to remain in Mexico), had instilled 
in the minds of these people the thought of a 
like attempt; and now when five years subse- 
quent to the appearance of Humboldt the ag- 
gressive Napoleon usurped the government of 
Spain, the thought grew stronger in the minds 
of many that any possible obligations to a for- 
eign power had ceased, and that in place of be- 
ing conveyed as part and parcel of a great hold- 
ing to a stranger, they were free to establish a 
government of their own. This ambition, how- 
ever, was of course bitterly opposed by the 
Spanish rulers of that country, as under a con- 
stitutional form of government they would re- 
ceive slight recognition through any ability or 
merit they possessed and especially in view of 
the unprincipled and cruel service they had lent 
themselves to for more than three-quarters of a 
century preceding. Yet, two years longer the 
fires of their ambition smouldered, then burst 
into flame and under the leadership of that pa- 
triot priest, Don Miguel Hidalgo, revolution 
raged throughout the land. Hidalgo was in 
charge of an unimportant parish in the little 
town of Dolores, when on the 15th day of Sep- 
tember, 1810, he proclaimed his renouncement 
of Spanish rule, of which the church was the 
great advocate and through which it had accu- 
mulated untold wealth and power, and an- 
nounced himself as the uncompromising advo- 
cate of independence. Instantly from moun- 



398 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

tain and plain, from forest and jungle poured 
forth legions of the poverty-stricken, down-trod- 
den, long-suffering natives, amongst which were 
found a liberal sprinkling of the middle classes. 
Twenty thousand of them armed only with 
clubs 1 , stones and knives, with an occasional gun, 
pounced first upon the important and wealthy 
city of Guanajuato, a stronghold of the Span- 
iards, when blind with fury over their three cen- 
turies of abuse, they gave no heed of their own 
lives and spared not those of their persecutors. 
The stronghold fell, the city was sacked, and with 
its streets slippery with blood, they marched 
forth and away toward the capital itself. Reach- 
ing the valley, Hidalgo's followers had increased 
to one hundred thousand ; meeting here a Span- 
ish army which he defeated, he marched on to 
within fifteen miles of the city, and camping 
for a few days, he for some reason never yet ex- 
plained, began a retreat. And herein the error 
occurred which caused long weary years of tur- 
moil and bloodshed to ensue ere these unhappy 
and oppressed people in any manner controlled 
their own destinies, for unquestionably had Hi- 
dalgo followed up his advantages, himself and 
his followers would have been overwhelmed with 
triumphs, the Augean stables would have been 
quickly and effectually cleaned, independence 
under constitutional government thoroughly and 
more quickly established and accepted by these 
people so unaccustomed and uneducated to the 
change, and vast areas afterward lost would no 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 399 

doubt have yet remained Mexican territory. The 
sudden voluntary cessation of his triumphal 
march, however, allowed the fury of his follow- 
ers to cool and gave to> the Spanish government 
that time so much needed to recover from sur- 
prise and consternation, when with a. train of 
artillery and an army of ten thousand men, Hi- 
dalgo was overtaken and defeated. Guanajuato 
was then retaken and over fourteen thousand de- 
fenceless men, women and children murdered in 
the streets in one day. Hidalgo was again de- 
feated, captured and shot, Morelos now became 
the leader of the vast and scattered horde in 
whom the spirit of independence had in no de-_ 
gree abated, and on the 16th day of November, 
1813, the first formal declaration of independ- 
ence was made, while on October 22, 1814, 
nearly a year later, and while fugitives every- 
where from Spanish soldiery, a constitution was 
framed by a delegation of these patriots hidden 
in the forest of Apantzingo. 

Morelos soon shared the fate of Hidalgo, as 
did several others of the numerous leaders which 
followed. There was one wily, uncompromis- 
ing chieftain, however, who from his mountain 
retreat defied the power of Spain; it was Don 
Vincente Guerrero. Iterbide, commander of the 
army of the viceroy, was at last sent with a large 
force to capture him. Camping in his vicinity, 
he first thought over the matter of attack upon 
this invincible patriot, then concluded to become 
a revolutionist himself, and arranging a meet- 



400 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

ing with Guerrero, the two formulated the cele- 
brated "Plan of Iguala," so named from a little 
town in which they met. This was proclaimed 
and the country rose en masse to its support. 
Iterbide and Guerrero united their forces, and 
strengthened by rapidly augmenting numbers, 
they entered and took possession of the capital 
without resistance. Iterbide was at once pro- 
claimed Emperor Augustin I, when at the end 
of nine months there made his appearance for 
the first time in the national affairs of Mexico 
that seditious scoundrel, Santa Anna, who tak- 
ing advantage of a growing unpopularity on the 
part of Iterbide, worked up a following. In- 
citing insurrection, Iterbide was exiled, when 
venturing later to return to his native land, was 
shot; the country meantime having been gov- 
erned by an executive body of three. 

And now in 1825 came a republic with Gua- 
delupe Victoria as its first president. Victoria, 
like Guerrero 1 , was a vicious enemy of Spanish 
government., and as leader of a, Guerilla band, 
waged fearful warfare for a time, until finally 
his little band being wiped out, he took to the 
mountain forests, where alone he wandered a fu- 
gitive for over three years, learning nothing of 
the affairs of his nation until one day an Indian 
found him and imparted to him the joyful news 
of independence. Again during Victoria's term 
of office we find Santa Anna issuing pronuncia- 
mentos and stirring up trouble and revolt wher- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 401 

ever he could. However, at the close of Victo- 
ria's term, or in the year 1828, the independence 
of Mexico was acknowledged by the United 
States, also in fact by other nations of Europe. 
In the same year an American settlement was 
made in Texas, then a part of Mexico. Victo- 
ria was succeeded by Guerrero, and again the 
meddlesome Santa Anna began his traitorous 
work. Guerrero with a body of troop left the 
city to punish the scoundrel, was captured and 
shot by this traitorous fiend, and again Santa 
Anna began plotting against his successor as he 
continued to do against everyone with whom he 
came in contact, keeping the republic in constant 
turmoil and warfare, when finally in 1841, he 
secured control of government for a short time, 
was dethroned, made prisoner for a brief space, 
then allowed to escape to Cuba, from which 
point he continued his seditious work. He set 
to work negotiating with nearly every country 
in Europe to take possession of his unfortunate 
and defenseless country, bankrupt and raging 
with dissension and revolution, which he had 
studiously and viciously incited. And here pre- 
sents itself a page in the history of this long- 
suffering and now ruin-rent republic which will 
ever remain a reflection upon the government of 
the United States. 

The little band of Americans and foreigners, 
settled in Texas through consent of the Mexican 
government, had grown in numbers, and through 
the long internal warfare and constant revolu- 



402 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

tion in Mexico had sought and obtained annex- 
ation to the United States. Santa Anna doing 
more than any other one in producing and main- 
taining a condition which made this desirable, 
and finally even in exile, causing to be exercised 
continuous persecution of these people: for so 
doing, to the end (diplomatic relations being al- 
ready abandoned), that the government at Wash- 
ington sought the protection of its newly ac- 
quired state, and war followed. In so far as de- 
fense of Texas was concerned, there is (aside 
from such views as many might have of harbor- 
ing a runaway or secessionist), no criticism 
whatever, were there not another side to the case 
quite plain to those familiar with the circum- 
stances and no longer disputed. 

That the great conspirator and destroyer of 
the peace and strength of his own country, the 
infamous Santa Anna, finally succeeded in en- 
gaging the United States in the questionable un- 
dertaking refused by the governments of Eu- 
rope, and that such was brought about by collu- 
sion, the main object of the United States' being 
that of acquiring territory, and that it was a 
part of the political intrigue through which 
James K. Polk was elected president, is a mat- 
ter which few versed in its details attempt, to 
dispute or justify, and is fully evidenced by 
such, transactions, as Taylor's uncalled-for ag- 
gression in crossing the Rio Grande and attack- 
ing Matamoras, by the importation of Santa 
Anna into Mexico wherein he was permitted to 



KEMINTSCENT RAMBLINGS. 403 

pass through the blockade of American vessels 
and land at Vera Cruz, for the purpose of stir- 
ring up greater discord amongst his countrymen, 
and by means of his revolutionary following se- 
cure his command of the Mexican forces, 
through all of which together with the fact that 
one-half of Mexico was fighting the remaining 
half, the nation bankrupt aside from the wealth 
of the church, which they refused to disgorge a 
dollar of except to create greater internal strife, 
and it became apparent with what ease an in- 
vading force and an even smaller one of any na- 
tion, no matter their mission, might have accom- 
plished its purpose. 

The war ended (which incidentally was by 
our own Gen. Ulysses S. Grant pronounced "the 
most unjust and unholy war ever waged against 
a destitute and defenseless people") and peace 
finally declared (for which was delivered the 
plunder in the form of a vast territory that had 
formed the sole object of invasion), Santa Anna 
the virtual agent and ally of the United States, 
no longer fortified in his position through the 
presence of the enemy, again quickly made good 
his escape, when, six years later his band of 
revolutionists having gained a position in which 
to protect him, this arch conspirator again re- 
turned for a brief term, was finally overcome by 
those struggling for law, order and general good 
government, and leaving the capital between two 
days, took refuge in the United States, whose in- 
terests he had so zealously served. 



404 REMINISCENT RAMBLING; 

The church, since the overthrow of Spanish 
dominion, cared little in whose hands the gov- 
ernment rested, so that such government what- 
ever it might be, made the Catholic faith exclu- 
sive of all other in Mexico, freed them from 
taxation, and permitted their continuous drain 
upon the wealth of the nation, through a perpet- 
uation of blind ignorance on the: part of the pro- 
ducing masses, whereby from the sale of bulls 
for absolvence from any crime whatsoever, and 
from the wholesale appropriation of the prop- 
erty of equally ignorant, unthinking, death-bed 
penitentsi, be they rich or poor, they had already 
taken unto themselves oner-half of the taxable 
property of Mexico, and were en. route to rap- 
idly acquire the other half. Their cathedrals 
were simply filled to overflowing with the wealth 
of the nation in the form of gold, silver, precious 
stones, and art, while the choicest landed estates 
dotted the republic, until in even those days of 
comparatively undeveloped resources, the aggre- 
gate wealth of the church in Mexico was esti- 
mated at nearly one billion -of dollars, though 
nine-tenths of the nation's people were enslaved 
and starving. 

At the outbreak of the war with the United 
States, Gomez Farias suggested that the penni- 
less nation, having all it could do to cope with 
such internal conspirators as Santa Anna and 
his followers, should receive some assistance 
from the church, who possessed all the wealth 
and nine-tenths of the privileges. In response to 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 405 

this (as stated) they simply armed bands to 
make war upon Farias and his followers for 
daring to suggest such contribution. 

The Constitution so far had declared that no 
church but the Catholic should be allowed, and 
that the press while free in other respects, 
should under no circumstances be permitted to 
criticize the church. But now, in 1857, a new 
Constitution (that which now exists) was adopt- 
ed, and the right was declared to worship in 
any faith one chose, and to discuss the same 
freely. Benito Juarez was at the time (under 
Alvarez) Minister of Justice and Ecclesiastical 
Affairs, and through whom (a Zapotec Indian, 
born of poor parents in the state of Oaxaca, but 
of a tribe who, fortified in their mountain fast- 
nesses, the Spanish had never been able to con- 
quer) was created what was known as the "Law 
of Juarez," abolishing class legislation, restrict- 
ing the military and the church, and establish- 
ing absolute equality of all citizens before the 
law. 

The President Comonfort, too weak to en- 
force the law, played fast and loose, until finally 
assassinated at the instigation of the church, 
when Juarez falling heir to the presidency, com- 
menced at once the work of relieving the distress 
and prohibiting further impositions upon a long- 
outraged populace, and at the same time admin- 
istering to the church the punishment they so 
richly deserved. 



406 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

In the forty years preceding, Mexico had 
endured thirty-six different forms of govern- 
ment, administered by seventy-three different 
rulers. The entire period being fraught with in- 
creasing internal strife, conspiracy and warfare, 
with additional troubles from without, Mexico 
was driven to the depths of national poverty, 
and in debt to everyone of whom they could bor- 
row. And now when the first ray of light 
seemed to be dawning after the long, dark night 
of turbulence and distress, the three creditor na- 
tions — England, Spain and France — formed a 
forced collection alliance, when after the com- 
bined fleet had reached Vera Cruz a treaty was 
made whereby the English and Spanish, 
ashamed of their action, found an excuse to 
withdraw, while the French insisted upon in- 
vading the interior. And now, unlike the con- 
ditions which opposed American invasion 
(though equally penniless and poorly equipped) 
there existed that important factor of com- 
parative loyalty and unity of effort in their 
country's defence, which coupled with the lead- 
ership other than that of an infamous Santa 
Anna, gave to the French an unlocked for strug- 
gle. For an unexpected Napoleon had risen 
up and confronted them in the Western Hemis- 
phere in the person of Porfirio< Diaz. Yet they 
swept onward and capturing the capital, Juarez 
and his cabinet were driven from place to place, 
finally settling at Paso del Norte, now called 
Ciudad Juarez, situate upon the American bor- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 407 

der, just across the Rio Grande from the pres- 
ent town of El Paso, in Texas. 

The French now installed themselves and 
set up a government known as a limited hered- 
itary monarchy, with a Catholic prince as ruler, 
who 1 was to assume the title of Emperor of Mex- 
ico', and conferred the same upon Prince Ferdi- 
nand Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, and 
brother to the Emperor Francis Joseph. Being 
deluded into the belief that the matter was agree- 
able to the Mexican people, he accepted, and 
accompanied by his wife Carlotta, assumed rule. 
His unfortunate ending is known throughout 
the world. He was in no sense at heart a bad 
man, but neither he nor his government were 
of the people's choice. A deceitful priesthood 
had convinced him that they were, and sup- 
ported for the time by the iron hand of the 
French military, he rested secure. Through 
his innate desire to be just, he through an en- 
terprising and democratic attitude, soon called 
upon himself the displeasure of the church, and 
so disappointed the French Emperor that he 
abandoned his idea of establishing an empire, 
and withdrew his soldiers from Mexico>, leaving 
Maximilian to work out his own salvation. Had 
he been wise he would have departed with his 
military support, but remaining, his danger rap- 
idly increased, for though disposed to champion 
the cause of the people, he could not be forgotten 
as the representative of an invading and usurp- 
ing power, and forgetful of all his virtues was 



408 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

held responsible for its acts. As his predica- 
ment became more appalling, Carlotta went 
alone to Paris and begged the emperor to return 
the troops, which he firmly refused to do. . 

Juarez and his cabinet now began moving 
southward upon a return to the capital, while 
a rapidly augmenting avenging army gathered 
for his support. Maximilian with such support 
as he could accumulate^ moved northward to 
Queretaro, and meeting here the opposing forces 
of Juarez, was defeated, captured, and together 
with his two generals, Miramon and Mejia, were 
courtmartialed, and on the 19th of June, 1867, 
were shot upon the summit of "The Hill of 
Bells," an eminence in the outskirts of the city, 
where to-day may be seen three crosses marking 
the spot where they fell. 

Two days following the execution of Maxi- 
milian, Diaz, who coming up from the south 
with his followers;, had captured the city of Pu- 
ebla, now triumphantly, after a short siege, en- 
tered the City of Mexico, where Juarez and his 
cabinet joined him in the middle of the month 
following. 

And now the country settled down to a some- 
what united and peaceful condition, while sin- 
cere and rational steps were taken for the ad- 
justment of the national debt, for a system of 
public education, and for the encouragement of 
the construction of railways and other improve^ 
ments. 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 409 

And where was the contemptible Santa 
Anna during all this? Upon the arrival of 
Maximilian, he from his place of exile at once 
tendered his services to the new emperor; be- 
ing refused, he lost no time in making a like 
proposition to Juarez ; treated with disdain here, 
he at once undertook starting a rebellion of his 
own, and landing in Yucatan, was arrested, 
tried and sentenced to death, which the great 
magnanimous Juarez commuted to eight years 
of exile, finally dying in obscurity and ridding 
the world of his detestable being in 1877. 

Revolution had so long prevailed that 
through force of habit it appeared from time 
to time for a brief period, but was met with 
stern resistance by Juarez. Juarez was: suc- 
ceeded by Lerdo, one of the faithful cabinet, 
who fled with him to Paso del Norte, and who 
in turn was succeeded by Porfirio Diaz, the pro- 
tege, pupil, law partner, and general, of that 
grand old patriot, Juarez. 

With the exception of one term held by 
Gonzales, Diaz has ever since remained presi- 
dent of the rapidly advancing republic, now fast 
assuming a prominent place amongst the powers 
of the earth, at peace with itself and the world, 
prosperous in the pursuit® of trade and the de- 
velopment of its vast, resources, and possessed of 
as fine, and a more rapidly growing system of 
public education than elsewhere to be found, all 
of which having been accomplished under the 
reign of this remarkable man. There need be 



410 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

little criticism in the act of a now united and 
patriotic people, who but little over a quarter 
of a. century since agreed upon nothing save re- 
volt against, the general government, who in the 
recent past have seen fit to amend their constitu- 
tion whereby to make possible his occupancy of 
the office so long as he shall live, which in all 
probability will occur, for though having been 
born in 1830, his work in war and in peace place 
him to-day pre-eminently at the head of the pres- 
ent-day chiefs of the nations of the earth. 

Such roughly and briefly is the tale of Mex- 
ico from the dawn of information upon the sub- 
ject until now. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

In no small degree does one's knowledge of 
the country's past contribute to their first im- 
pressions of the extremely sunny peaceful, po- 
etic atmosphere that everywhere to-day pervades 
Mexico and its life. 

The mind freighted with information of 
those distressing scenes of human sacrifice, the 
brutality and inhumanity of conquest, and the 
terrors of revolution (which combined would 
seem to have fully engrossed the acts and the 
ambitions of these people for nearly a thousand 
years), comes first into contact with them fully 
and only prepared to experience and accept a 
personality on the part of these people, which 
acquired, augmented and handed down through 
centuries of bloodshed and dissension, it would 
seem must form an inheritance which even yet 
would manifest itself through sullen indiffer- 
ence and a coarse and brutal manner. Yet no- 
where amongst the nations of the earth are to be 
found a people whose genial, courteous, hospitr 
able manner, exceeds in genuineness and extent 
that of the Mexicans, be they patrician or ple- 
bian. In the thousands of miles traveled by 
the writer with pack train through the most re- 
mote regions of the land, and accompanied only 
by servants of the Indian or peon class "Mozos," 



412 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

camping by the wayside where night overtook us 
and hundreds of miles perhaps from railway or 
telegraph, he has yet to experience at their 
hands other than kindness, courtesy and a de- 
gree of faithfulness difficult to find elsewhere. 
And again frequently sheltered in the humble 
abode of a poor Mexican, enjoyed an observ- 
ance of unaffected dignity tempered by a refined, 
whole-souled hospitality, that might long yet 
remain an example to be emulated by the most 
pretentious of Newport, entertainers. And 
now, when morning came and we were about to 
depart (knowing well the scanty store of fri- 
joles and tortillas which had been so gener- 
ously shared), venturing to ask the indebted* 
ness, the impecunious yet proud and dignified 
host would majestically draw his zerape about 
him and courteously yet decisively impart the 
information that his was not a hotel. 

Of the fourteen millions or more who inhabit 
the republic, more than three-fourths are natives, 
or descendants of the different tribes who occu- 
pied the country prior to the conquest. In 
many of them the blood remains pure, but 
largely it is intermingled with the Spanish, 
English and French. Although a bordering na- 
tion, there are yet but little over thirty thousand 
Americans in the entire republic, by far the 
greater percentage of whom are engaged in min- 
ing, and many of whom cannot be regarded as 
even true residents, let alone the matter of citi- 
zenship. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 413 

The general form of Mexico is that of an ele- 
vated table land rising somewhat abruptly from 
each the Atlantic and Pacific coast lines into 
rugged mountain chains, between which exists 
the table land proper, itself interspersed with 
fragmentary ranges, while the desert-like fea- 
tures bounding it on the north and covering so 
great an area in the United States, continue 
southward over this entire plateau to a line cor- 
responding closely with the 22d parallel, when a 
field of productiveness has been reached which 
extends unbroken (save for the mountainous 
portions) to the southern boundary. Both coast 
lines, though the climate is hot and at points 
unhealthy, are extremely productive and sup- 
port a large population. 

The great northern and central table land 
referred to must not be regarded, however, as an 
absolute waste, for over its arid plains range 
millions of cattle, sheep and goats, while the 
small ranges with which it is dotted, furnish 
much gold and silver, though the most general 
mineral area is the mountains of the western 
coast. In fact, the largest individual cattle and 
land owner in the world is to be found here upon 
this table land in the state of Chihuahua. Gen- 
eral Terrazas, an ardent revolutionist, after a 
long struggle in behalf of independence finally 
settled down to the more peaceful pursuit of 
stock raising, and here to-day ranging over mill- 
ions of acres of his own lands, besides millions 
more belonging to the government, are found 



414 REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 

bearing his brand five hundred thousand bead of 
cattle, one million sheep and eight hundred thou- 
sand goats, together with a herd of horses so 
great than at an anniversary of his birth (the 
festivities being held at one of his ranches in 
the edge of a mountain range about ten miles 
distant across a level plain from the Mexican 
Central Kailway) he was enabled to select five 
hundred white horses from his own herd, and to 
mount them with five hundred of his own cow 
punchers, dressed in white uniforms ; with these 
he received his guests at the railway and gave 
them escort to the ranch and return. Aside 
from his palatial residence in the city of Chi- 
huahua, he owns and occupies a country seat 
about five miles distant up the Chihuahua river 
and near the Mexican Central Kailway, which 
has few equals in all the efforts of the multi-mill- 
ionaire class in the United States. Banking, 
mining, iron manufacture, and meat canning 
contribute further to the unlimited holdings and 
princely income of this lord of the arid waste. 
Mexico is without question the most fruitful 
area of its size in the world in the production 
of precious metals. Since the conquest the re- 
corded production of silver alone amounts to 
over four billions of ounces; or otherwise ex- 
pressed, more silver than exists in the world at 
the present time in the form of money. There 
are at least four mining camps in Mexico, to 
each of whom is to be credited a production of 
gold and silver of over one billion of dollars. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 415 

Under Spanish rule one-fifth of the gross pro- 
duct was a tithing taken for the king or the home 
government; then the corrupt viceroy must be 
cared for, while the church at one time came 
very near taking what was left. In the city of 
Chihuahua is a cathedral costing eight hundred 
thousand dollars, built from a tax of two per 
cent, levied upon the gross product of the Santa 
Eulalia mine near by. Yet notwithstanding 
all these demands, and notwithstanding the ab- 
ject poverty and pitiful condition of servitude 
endured by the native masses, the fortune of 
mining then as in later times picked occasion- 
ally from the lowly and serf -like horde an object 
upon which to lavish untold wealth. Nearly 
fifty years before the liberty bell in Philadel- 
phia rang out its peals of independence, a poor 
peon in Mexico named Peter Terreros who had 
for twelve years toiled alone (during such time 
as was left him after earning a miserable sup- 
port) digging away in an abandoned mine, with 
little promise of reward, when suddenly he en- 
countered ore of such volume and of such fab- 
ulous richness, that the wealth pouring in upon 
him was difficult to handle. He first built two 
magnificent ships of the line and presented them 
to the King of Spain, then sent word to his Maj- 
esty that if he would visit him, that both he and 
the horse he rode should tread upon nothing but 
sheets of silver from the time of his landing at 
Vera Cruz until his return. Upon the mar- 
riage of his daughter the pathway over which 

27 



416 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

the bridal party passed between the house and 
the church was paved with bars of silver and 
gold ; his income rose to more than a million 
dollars per month, while his final possessions 
amounting to a hundred millions or more were 
during that period simply inconceivable. In 
consideration of this man's vast wealth, together 
with his princely contributions to the church 
and other causes, he was created Count of Begla. 
The revolution which followed swept away his 
vast accumulations to an extent that his entire 
descendants were left penniless. Other in- 
stances in these early times and amongst these 
down-trodden and severely governed people, of 
sudden elevation from pitiful poverty to won- 
drous wealth occurred frequently, one in partic- 
ular which probably ranks next to that of Terre- 
ros, occurred but a short time subsequent, where 
the fortunate discoverer gained a fortune of 
nearly seventy-five millions. 

Again over where the city of Durango now 
stands (and incidentally where occurs the great- 
est and most valuable iron deposit in the world) 
there dwelt three hundred and seventy-five years 
ago a humble "ranehero." A little village was 
started upon his lands, and a mine was dis- 
covered which soon endowed him with such fab- 
ulous wealth that he built a palace, which 
to-day is occupied as the palace of the governor 
of the state of Durango ; before building this he 
sent a request to the King of Spain to be allowed 
to build his "portales," or porches, of silver, 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 417 

and accompanied the request with a present of 
two millions of dollars. It being a privilege of 
royalty only, the king refused permission, but 
neglected to return the two millions. 

And now at the present writing comes Pedro 
Alverado, who after a lifetime of toil in which 
to provide himself with the plainest of food and 
clothing, meantime owning and delving away at 
an insignificant holding in the mining camp of 
Parral, at last breaks into a storehouse of treas- 
ure which converts his little property of yester- 
day, seeking a sale at a few thousand dollars, 
into a bonanza the purchase of which now stag- 
gers the largest combinations of capital; mean- 
time the opulent owner seeks not the title of a 
count, but loyal to his country and his race, be- 
stows his wealth with a lavish hand upon the 
less fortunate who surround him, and incident- 
ally proposes to the President of his republic to 
be permitted to pay the national debt. 

Few there are as compared with the whole 
(even in the adjoining country of the United 
States), who even vaguely realize the wealth of 
interesting matter with which this sunny land is 
strewn. When the resident of the newer do- 
main to the north, exhausted from the struggle 
and laden with accumulation, starts for Europe, 
either in pursuit of quiet and rest or the gratifi- 
cation of a scholarly and refined taste (fanciful 
or otherwise) through an environment of art 
and antiquity, he or she simply goes farther and 



418 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

fares worse, for in this great range of territory 
extending from the thirty-second parallel on the 
north to a point only twelve degrees removed 
from the equator, with elevations reaching from 
sea level to nearly eighteen thousand feet above, 
with meteorological conditions varying from an 
inch of rainfall to one hundred, with centers 
teeming with life and vast areas wrapt in soli- 
tude, there is found every condition of climate 
and every degree of life association. And again, 
here thronged with beings were great cities with 
lordly palaces and gilded temples, while the 
ground upon which now stand those the most 
ancient of modern Europe was still the wild and 
unreclaimed hunting ground of a then brutal 
savage, and yet others with walls of ornate sculp- 
ture, then apparently as battered and gray with 
age as now, had their creation long before our 
Saviour had His birth. 

The Pacific coast, including Lower Califor- 
nia, still remains the frontier of Mexico, for as 
yet no line of railway from the interior reaches 
it. in all that great stretch from the Gulf of Te- 
huantepec northerly to Guaymas, while from the 
latter place the connection is made for some con- 
siderable distance through the United States, a 
condition, however, the end of which is near. 

The coast cities of Guaymas, Culiacan, Ma- 
zatlan, Manzanillo and Acupulco, though active 
and prosperous business centers, are compara- 
tively modern and present little of interest to the 
student of art and archeology, save to a slight 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 419 

extent that of the latter, which, on account of its 
delightful harbor soon discovered by the inde- 
fatigable Spanish conquerors, was immediately 
occupied, and from here in 1540, but nine years 
after its discovery, sailed Don Hernando de 
Alarcon, the discoverer of California. From 
here later, and until the end of Spanish rule, 
sailed the richly laden galleons, in the trade be- 
tween Spain, China and the East Indies. For 
as Bret Harte has said in his famous poem, the 
"Lost Galleon," 

"In sixteen hundred and forty-one 
The regular yearly Galleon 
Laden with odorous gums and spice, 
And the richest silks of far Cathay, 
Was due at Acupulco Bay." 

These eargos were the richest upon an aver- 
age of those of any carrying trade in the world 
before or since, and ran into millions of dollars 
each, the outgoing being treasure from the rich 
mines of Mexico, in payment for the costly mer- 
chandise that returned, and much of which, by 
the way, did not return, for English and French 
pirates with swift and well-armed vessels lurked 
constantly in the numerous shelterings of the 
coast to pounce upon the enticing prey. 

By far the most charming of this altogether 
intensely interesting land is the south half of 
that portion lying east of the Pacific coast range. 
Ciudad Juarez, on the extreme northern boun- 
dary, has little of historical interest save as be^ 



420 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

ing the fugitive capital during the struggle for 
independence. Chihuahua, over two hundred 
miles due south, ranks well in years with the 
earliest of the cities that followed the conquest, 
having been founded only forty-seven years sub- 
sequent to the landing of Columbus. It is, 
however, too much a border town to preserve in 
any marked degree the purity of race customs. 

East of the Sierra Madres and between Chi- 
huahua and the twenty-fourth parallel, which 
may be taken as the northern limit of the more 
attractive area referred to, are located the fol- 
lowing more or less interesting cities, nearly all 
founded during the sixteenth century. Parras, 
noted for its surrounding vineyards and the ex- 
cellent quality of its wines ; Saltillo, where the 
finest zerapes are made. Monterey, Monclova 
and Matamoros, like Chihuahua and Juarez, are 
in too great a degree border towns to be possessed 
of extreme interest. Torreon, though of con- 
siderable size, is a railway town and modern. 
Durango, situated upon the dividing line, or 
the 24th parallel, is by far the most prominent 
and interesting of all the cities so far reached. 
Aside from the already mentioned mountain of 
iron which still exists, and the ranchers with 
ambitions for silver balconies and porches who 
no longer exist, the place, now a city of no> mean 
dimensions, possesses many attractions and is 
the center of extensive mining and other indusr 
tries. 

Continuing southward, the traveler now en- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINC1S. 421 

ters a field even richer as a whole than any other 
on earth in all that goes to heighten the fancy 
and gratify the cravings of a mind governed by 
loftier conceptions and guided by nobler impulses 
than the limitless accumulation and individual 
appropriation of material things with its result- 
ant governing power, no matter whether it be 
through the brutal conquest of a Cortez or the 
equally effective and no less oppressive methods 
of more modern design. A land where fertile 
and tranquil valley and plain teem with monu- 
ments hewn from the everlasting rocks, impres- 
sively heroic in magnitude and artful in design, 
which mark the wavering, winding course of evo- 
lution and tell the tale of an existence from that 
of now, back so far that no single other fact 
remains, the pathway itself is lost, while ever 
ready yet unfounded tradition reverently recoils 
from any attempt at explanation. And now cir- 
cling 'round about the whole, reared into mon- 
strous form through the earth's convulsions and 
later carved into intricate design by that great 
artisan in earth sculpture, exists a system of 
mountain barriers, with here and there a tower- 
ing sentinel breathing forth at intervals in tones 
of thunder and with breath of fire and flame a 
stern warning to the earthly, irreverent vandals 
who prowl below, that there yet remains a power 
other and greater than they. 

Here upon the eastern or gulf shore line of 
this lower half of the republic rest the promi- 
nent ports of Tampico and Vera Cruz, while 



422 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

scattered throughout the vast interior and clus- 
tering about their sovereign (that altogether 
most charming of all cities of the Western Hem- 
ispheres) are such as Zaeatecas, San Luis, Po- 
tosi, Guanajuato and Pachuca, queens in the 
realm of gold and silver, whose mines though 
worked for more than four hundred years are 
still producing, and each of which has given to 
the world in the two metals more than one hill- 
ion dollars. Queretaro with its field of opal 
gems ; Leon a great industrial hwe in the manu- 
facture of cotton, woolen and leather goods, 
ironware and cutlery, with no usurpation of priv- 
ilege, but divided into hundreds of small propri- 
etorships; Guadalajara, the most beautiful and 
cleanly city in North America. Puebla filled 
with churches and surrounded by volcanoes, its 
cathedral rivaling that of Mexico, except in di- 
mensions; Morelia, the birthplace of Morelos, 
and the city of beautiful homes; Cuernavaca, 
with its beautiful Jardin de la Borda, with its 
fountains, lakes, cataracts, and terraces, the 
whole rivaling the gardens of the palace at Mar- 
seilles, and the gift of a poor peon who made 
fifty millions in mines ; here Cortez built a pal- 
ace home, which to-day is occupied as the state 
capitol, and here, too, Maximilian and Carlotta 
passed much of that gay and luxurious existence 
which preceded the terrible end. Oaxaca, a city 
long before the conquest by Gortez or the land- 
ing of Columbus, with its beautiful church of 
Santo Domingo, costing over thirteen millions 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 423 

of dollars and filled with priceless treasure, the 
birthplace of each of those illustrious sons of 
pure Indian blood, Bonito Juarez and Porfirio 
Diaz, lies upon the border of a great domain 
extending still farther southward, over which 
are scattered the ruins of cities of monstrous 
size and grand design, so wrapt in the mysticism 
of antiquity that yet no light is shed upon their 
creation, occupation or abandonment. 

The first of these, Mitla, is but a short day's 
drive from Oaxaca; from here extending along 
the isthmus of Tehuantepec, through the states 
of Chiapas, Campechi and Yucatan, there are 
great numbers of these ruins of prehistoric 
cities ; but the greatest of them all is that of Pal- 
enque, situated in the state of Chiapas, near the 
border of Guatemala, and buried in most part in 
the depths of a dense, dark, tropical forest, so 
tangled with thickets and vines and fallen trees 
as to be practically impenetrable. Here' once 
existed a city that, so far as modern explorers 
have been able to determine, covered an area of 
twenty miles square. The natives claim it to be 
much larger; however, numerous authorities 
reckon it to have covered more than ten times 
the area of the city of New York, and several 
times that of London. It will be many genera- 
tions under the most favorable circumstances be- 
fore its true boundaries will be known ; as buried 
beneath debris, the accumulation of scores of 
centuries, and the present surface covered with 
vegetation so dense and of such rapid growth 



424 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

that its reproduction in most part is but a matter 
of a few months, it becomes, together with the 
great area to be unearthed, no easy task. Yet 
of it, enough is exposed and fully explored to 
warrant the statement that Herculanseum, Pom- 
peii, Thebes and the pyramids of Egypt are in 
comparison but toys viewed from the standpoint 
of magnitude and design, while from that of 
time it is. more than possible they are but chil- 
dren of tender years. Charnay and Dupaix 
place its origin (together with others of these 
cities) long prior to the beginning of the Chris- 
tian era. 

The priesthood points to certain indefinite 
figures, in the wilderness of carvings that yet 
adorn both the outer and inner walls of such 
temples and palaces as are exposed, as evidence 
that these people knew of the Christian faith; 
and with no authority whatever, place the 
period of founding in the third century. How- 
ever, so far as the occurrence of the cross 
(though it may be) is concerned, it appears of 
but little value in establishing the existence of 
these people and the creation of their inconceiv- 
able works, when we consider the fact that 
archeologists in recent time have recovered in- 
numerable of these emblems with the very best 
evidence to show their existence thousands of 
years before our Christ was born. 

In viewing the works here presented in this 
one city, and in contemplation of the vast area 
remaining yet unexplored (for the forest and 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 425 

jungle is so dens© that one might pass within 
a stone's throw of a structure as large as the 
capital at Washington and never dream of its 
presence) one is lost in wonder at the accom- 
plishments of these early people. Pantheons 
and palaces, temples and towers, a hundred or 
more, (though an infinitesimal fraction of the 
whole) have been discovered and explored, the 
largest about three hundred feet square, all of 
them constructed of the hardest stone and of 
blocks of such dimensions as to tax to its utter- 
most the capacity of our most modern appli- 
ances of to-day for handling, the quarries from 
which they were taken certainly not being with- 
in any reasonable distance, each stone cut and 
laid in the most workmanlike manner, and the 
whole covered with carvings of bird and beast 
and man, interspersed with acres of hiero- 
glyphics which yet await deciphering; all this 
with the lack of conveniences, which must then 
have existed, and the mind is lost in calculation 
of the time and toil, patience and perseverance 
that here alone present their evidence. Uxmal 
and Chichen in Yucatan seem next in impor- 
tance so far as discovered, the former being 
especially rich in monstrous and highly adorned 
structures. Labna, Kahbah, Nohpat and May- 
apan are still other notable examples. 

Awakening from the reverie, and abandon- 
ing the vain struggle for further information 
concerning this ancient life, let us return to the 



426 REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 

present capital, about which clusters all of to- 
day in this land of the Aztec, the Toltec, and, 
earlier still, that apparently superior race for 
which we have no name. 

Where today stands the City of Mexico 
with a population of five hundred thousand peo- 
ple, there existed for two hundred years prior 
to the conquest an even greater city, Tenochtit- 
lan, the capital of the Aztecs; which together 
with the long train of other features of an- 
tiquity in and about, coupled with its climate 
and its multitude of present-day charms, render 
Mexico to the visitor the most interesting and 
agreeable metropolis of all in the Americas, 
north of the equator at least. 

The Mexicans are a music loving people, and 
no town of any magnitude can be found 
throughout the republic whose plaza does not con- 
tain a band stand, and such band stands ! Not 
the clumsy affair with hideous lines which pre^ 
vails in the United States, but a light, airy, 
graceful, tastefully-decorated structure in orna- 
mental iron work. Nor do the military bands 
of which there are. one or more in every town 
of any importance (for Mexico is a somewhat 
military nation), and who like all such are the 
servants of and supported by the people at large, 
require to be paid extra, or assume the attitude 
of conveying some especial favor upon the peo- 
ple who support them, but are compelled to play 
regularly from the band stands of the public 
squares, and other points until the land is filled 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 427 

with music and the cares of life dispelled; of 
this and of all else that elevates and ennobles, 
the City of Mexico is the seat not only for 
Mexico, but in fact for the Western hemisphere. 
Here has been gathered in art a portion of all 
that excels in the so-called old world; Titians, 
Raphaels, Murillos, Correas , Cortonas, Van 
Dycks, Rubens and Leonardo diVinces, together 
with the works of other masters too numerous to 
mention, are found in places open to all. The 
equestrian statue of Charles the Fourth stand- 
ing at the city's entrance to the Paseo, was mod- 
eled by a native artist and cast by native work- 
men in 1802. It still remains the largest single 
piece of bronze in the world, horse and rider 
being in one piece. Humboldt declared it also 
the finest example of its kind in existence, save 
that of Marcus Aurelius in Rome. The statues 
of Columbus and of Guatimotzin occupying re- 
spective glorietas in the Paseo rank high in the 
world of art, while the monument to Juarez 
(a Grecian temple, within which rests a figure 
of the noble Indian president, his head sup- 
ported by a goddess-like figure of Mexico 1 , the 
whole in the whitest marble) appeals to the 
writer as the grandest and most beautiful piece 
of sculpture he has yet seen, while amongst the 
ablest critics it has long been conceded that 
this is one of the choicest the world possesses. 

Here again the newspaper of the new world 
had its birth; a printing press being set up in 



428 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

1535 for the publication of a paper called the 
"Gaoeta." 

Here, also, we find established but sixteen 
years subsequent to the Gaoeta the first uni- 
versity of the continent. 

Both the newspaper and the university, how- 
ever, were strictly curtailed in their usefulness, 
and contributed little toward the general upliftr 
ing and betterment of the masses. 

Tenochtitlan, upon the arrival of Cortez, 
contained from 50,000 to 60,000 buildings of 
all sorts, and a probable population of over 
500,000 people ; while Mexico, the city of today, 
is closely approaching this magnitude. 

Like all cities of the nation, the number and 
splendor of its churches forcibly impress one; 
for the century succeeding the conquest was a 
period of the most beautiful work along these 
lines, borrowing and grouping here the gem 
features of church architecture from throughout 
the entire old world and adding to it much of 
the native Indian idea, especially in carving 
and other ornamentation, and with cheap, yet 
skillful, labor of the natives, together with the 
untold and rapidly developing wealth in gold 
and silver of this new possession to warrant it, 
the government gave free reign in church con- 
struction to the end that the land is studded, 
even throughout the wildest and most inacces- 
sible portions, with works of this kind, of endur- 
ing construction and matchless beauty. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 429 

Here in the City of Mexico alone are 125 
churches, the beautiful form and detail of whose 
facades, together with that of the towers and 
domes above, tinged with the exquisite colorings 
of age, render each an example whose descrip- 
tion other than vague and unworthy must flow 
from the tongue or pen of a skilled and 
eloquent artist. Of all these churches which 
surround it, and in fact of all that now 
exist upon the American continent, the great 
cathedral, in point of size, grandeur and 
wealth of interior decoration and fittings, 
stands pre - eminently alone. With a depth 
of 426 feet, a frontage of 203 feet, its pon- 
derous, yet graceful, dome rising from the 
center of the rear half, and its two great towers 
each reaching upward to a height of 206 feet, 
render inquiry on the part of the visitor to 
Mexico as to its whereabouts quite unnecessary. 
Added to this already huge structure, and now 
forming a part of the same, is the "Sagrario," 
which, with the little chapel of "La Capilla de 
la Soledad," gives to the grand pile a total 
frontage of about 400 feet The walls, roof 
and towers alone of the Cathedral proper cost 
over two millions of dollars, and this with prac- 
tically slave labor representing but little more 
than one-tenth of the cost to-day. Its corner- 
stone was laid in 1573 and its complete con- 
struction occupied a period of 219 years. The 
greater outlay by far upon this edifice was its* 
interior adornment, altars, figures, etc. Within 



430 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

this vast and magnificent enclosure are five 
naves, six altars, and fourteen chapels. At the 
northern extremity and facing the main en- 
trance rests the high altar, a towering mass of 
ornate carving covered with gold, the lower por- 
tion a system of panels each filled with a paint- 
ing by the hand of one of the old masters, the 
whole, rising to the very arches of the roof, 
forming what was long regarded as the richest 
altar in the world, for then, like other portions 
of this gorgeous temple, it was lavishly arrayed 
in statues, crosses, chalices, censers and candle 
sticks of solid gold, set with diamonds and other 
precious stones, many of these pieces being too 
heavy for one man to lift ; one, the statue of the 
assumption, was alone valued at over a million 
of dollars. But, the bitter revolution ended and 
independence attained, the church having 
throughout aided Spain and antagonized the 
revolutionists, now found themselves in a most 
embarrassing position; though enormously 
wealthy and owning as they did more than half 
of all the property of Mexico, and holding the 
same free from taxation, while the new gov- 
ernment found itself bankrupt. But though the 
church had the wealth, the government had the 
power, and at once engaged in the sequestration 
of church property, and the massive images and 
ornaments of gold, together with tons of bap- 
tismal fonts and chancel railings of gold and 
silver combined, went into the melting pot from 
these storehouses of wealth all over the land. 



REMINISCENT KAMBLINGS. 431 

To give the reader a clearer idea of the enormous 
wealth other than apparent that exists even yet 
in these temples of holy faith, it may be related 
that in recent years a leading concern, engaged in 
the reduction of gold and silver ores, offered for 
the chancel railing of one of the churches of 
the republic, to replace the . same in identical 
form in sterling silver and pay one million dol- 
lars in exchange; the present silver railing con- 
taining enough gold that this transaction might 
be engaged in at a profit. 

The great cathedral though the largest, 
grandest and most gorgeous church edifice in the 
western hemisphere to-day, is but a skeleton 
of its former self through this process of seques- 
tration, to which the present heretical govern- 
ment has added the further indignity that outr 
side the church walls no priest shall wear his 
robes. 

In the Sagrario, which opens into and forms 
a part of the great cathedral pile, are thirteen 
altars, making nineteen in all. The entire front 
of the Sagrario is an intricate mass of ornate 
carving and is in striking contrast to that of the 
cathedral proper. 

But there are other things of interest and 
great good in this most charming of cities, also 
much of interest in the struggle for independ- 
ence that is almost identical with that of the 
United States; amongst the rest a liberty bell. 
For at midnight on the 15th of September in 
the year 1810 the patriot priest Hidalgo startled 



432 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

from their slumbers the people 'round about by 
violently ringing the bell in the tower of his 
little church at Dolores. They gathered to listen 
to his eloquent appeal for liberty as it rang out 
on the midnight air, and gathering such weap- 
ons! as they could find, formed then and there 
the nucleus of a mighty host that quickly fol- 
lowed. Eighty-six years to a day following 
this event the writer happened to be in the City 
of Mexico, when this old Tocsin of terror to the 
tyrant of long before was brought from its home 
and mounted amidst great: pomp and ceremony, 
over the central gate to the palace. When all 
was ready, and as the first tone sounded, a. thou- 
sand or more carrier pigeons, gathered from all 
the country 'round about, and garlanded with 
streamers in the tri-colors of Mexico fastened 
about their necks, were suddenly liberated from 
confinement beneath the bell, and soaring up- 
ward in a great cloud departed to all points of 
the compass, bearing to the oppressed every- 
where the glad tidings of liberty. 

More and better libraries are hard to find 
anywhere; the national library, occupying the 
old church of San Augustin, contains more than 
half a million volumes ; amongst which are to 
be found a greater number of rare and valuable 
works than in all other libraries of North Amer- 
ica combined. 

The National Museum, already extensive, 
is rapidly growing, and one of the most inter- 
esting in the world. 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 433 

The School of Mines is a superb institution 
of learning, and the building one of the most 
magnificent to be found anywhere. 

The School of Fine Arts, The College of San 
Ygnacio Loyola, the School of Agriculture, that 
of Medicine and other too numerous to mention, 
are all important and rapidly growing institu- 
tions, while hospitals and asylums are abundant. 

No finer system of street and suburban rail- 
ways, street pavement and other municipal im- 
provements exist in any city in the world. No 
lovelier parks and public squares, no boulevard 
so grand as the Paseo de la Raforma, and no 
residence of the ruler of any other nation so 
beautiful and poetic as the Castle of Chapulte- 
pec, from which, perched upon the summit of 
the ancient "Hill of the Grasshoppers," one 
looks for three miles down and along the broad 
paseo thronged with life and gaiety, on through 
the city, out across the silvery lakes with their 
surrounding fields and forests green, and away 
beyond at those great silent, towering, snow- 
capped volcanic peaks, which rising majestically 
to an elevation of two miles above the plain of 
Anahuac, blend almost indefinably their sil- 
vered summits with the soft pale blue of a south- 
ern summer sky ; and, wrapped in admiration of 
the scene, we are further lost in wonder dense, 
that here in all time past could have reigned 
aught else than peace, contentment and good 
will. 



CHAPTER XX. 

Out across the plain to the northeast, but a 
few miles distant from the outskirts of the City 
of Mexico, and nestled at the foot of a range of 
rocky hills, rests the little hamlet of Gruadalupa, 
and the holiest shrine in all the Catholic world. 

It was in the month of December, in the 
year 1531, that a young native Indian, an early 
convert and devout follower of the Catholic 
faith, in wending his way to a little nearby mis- 
sion church, took the trail of a short route which 
led along the face of one of these rocky hills. 
Suddenly he heard the sound of music and sing- 
ing, and looking up, there amongst the rocks and 
cactus on the hillside, stood a beautiful lady, 
about whose form was gathered a halo of light, 
and who beckoned him toward her. Paralyzed 
with fright, the poor Indian approached, when 
she bade him have no fear, but go on an errand 
for her at once to the City of Mexico, where 
dwelt Bishop Don Juan Zumarraga, the first 
Archbishop of Mexico, and soon thereafter ap- 
pointed, and say to him for her that it was her 
request that a temple at once be built in her hon- 
or and upon the spot where she then stood. Then 
she vanished, and Juan trotted tremblingly away 
toward the city on his uncanny errand. The 
Bishop listened to his strange tale and sent him 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 435 

away without further discussion. Returning, 
she sent him back the second and even the third 
time, when the Bishop, annoyed and uncertain 
how to act, sent a spy to shadow his return, but 
approaching the mountain, Juan's form melted 
into thin air, and all trace of him was lost. He 
found the lady, however, awaiting his return at 
the usual place, and conveyed to her the Bishop's 
command that some further evidence of a more 
convincing nature than Juan's simple statements 
be furnished him. She bade him go home for 
the present and meet her again on the following 
day. Reaching home he found his father ill 
with fever, and in place of returning on the fol- 
lowing day as directed, remained to nurse him. 
Several days elapsed, when his father's condi- 
tion becoming alarming, he hastened back to the 
little church whither he was bent when first 
meeting the strange lady, and through fear of 
meeting her again, passed around the hill on its 
opposite side, but at a given point she again ap- 
peared to him. Falling upon his knees he im- 
plored her to not delay him, for that his father 
lay dying at his home of fever, and that all haste 
must be made for the priest that he might die 
confessed. Then she bade him have no fear, that 
his father was already cured and well, and smit- 
ing the rocks upon which, she stood, lo there 
sprang up a forest, of rose bushes laden with 
beautiful roses, moist with dew. 

These Indians of the poorer and laboring 
class to this day wear suspended from the neck 



436 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 



a leathern apron of rather large dimensions, 
called a "tilma." Juan wore one of these, and 
the strangei lady ordered him to pluck and fill 
his apron with these flowers of sudden growth 
and take them to the Bishop as an evidence of 
her divine being. Then to further impress her 
already dumfounded messenger, and hasten his 
footsteps, she again smotei the ground near 
where she had been standing, when suddenly 
there burst forth a stream of clear, cold water. 
And where to-day inside a beautiful chapel 
which has been erected over it, the weary pil- 
grims quench their thirst. Reaching the Bishop, 
Juan loosed his hold upon the apron and dumped 
the mass of roses at his feet, when lo and behold, 
upon the exposed face of the tilma where the 
roses had rested, appeared a most beautiful im^ 
age of the Virgin. 

The Bishop at once took possession of the 
tilma and Juan hastened home to find that his 
father had been suddenly restored to health and 
strength upon the very hour that the wonderful 
apparition had assured him of his recovery. A 
chapel was at once erected upon the spot from 
which the roses were plucked, the now sacred 
tilma with the image thereon was placed with- 
in, and Juan and his father established as guar- 
dians and caretakers to the end of life. 

Though from the first, all Mexico devoutly 
believed in this miraculous event and worshipped 
at this shrine, two hundred and twenty-three 
years elapsed ere the Pope' at Rome gave official 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 437 

recognition to it through the Papal Bull of Ben- 
edict XIV, and the Virgin of Guadalupa was 
proclaimed Protectress and Patroness of all New 
Spain. 

It was on the 12th of December, 1531, that 
occurred the last meeting between Juan Diego 
and the Virgin of Guadalupa in which she sent 
him on his mission laden with flowers, and the 
people of Mexico had they been privileged to 
govern themselves, would without doubt immedi- 
ately have given the day official recognition, but 
not acquiring this righteous privilege for nearly 
300 years following, they were delayed until the 
29th day of November, 1824, when the very first 
Congress that met of these now independent peo- 
ple, made the 12th of December a national holy 
day, which still remains probably the most sa- 
cred of all Mexican holy days. 

The little chapel built by Bishop Zumarraga 
in honor of the Virgin, still stands upon the face 
of the rocky hill, while at its base now towers a 
magnificent pile, the church of Guadalupa, with- 
in which, upon the high altar (an imposing mass 
exquisitely wrought from the whitest marble) 
rests the sacred tilma, beneath a sheet of plate 
glass and bordered by a priceless frame. On 
one side of the altar is the figure of Bishop Zu- 
marraga, and on the other that of Juan Diego, 
the whole enclosed by an ornate railing of ster- 
ling silver weighing twenty-six tons. 

The 12th of October, 1895, witnessed a 
gathering and ceremony over this sacred emblem 



438 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

that has probably never been outdone in the 
world of Catholic faith. On this date the image 
upon the tilma was crowned with a crown of 
gold bedecked with precious stones, costing more 
than five hundred thousand dollars. Thirty 
thousand dollars being paid to a French firm of 
jewelers for the work alone. 

The scene of this coronation cannot be fitly 
described; there gathered here upon this occa- 
sion representatives of the church and followers 
of the faith from every land on earth in which 
the Catholic form of worship exists. 

The railway lines entering the city of Mex- 
ico were taxed to their fullest capacity in hand- 
ling the visiting crowds, while from every 
quarter of Mexico, over mountain ranges, 
through the vales and across the desert wastes 
streamed thousands and hundreds of thousands, 
on foot and with beasts of burden, pressing fa- 
natically onward toward this Mexican mecca, 
until the great plain of Anahuac, as viewed from 
the hill of Guadalupa, appeared, so far as the 
eye could reach, a limitless sea of mixed human- 
ity and dust by day, and at night, through the 
myriad of camp fires, a vast mirror which, con- 
cealed by the darkness that covered the earth, 
reflected only the bright and innumerable lights 
of the firmament above. 

When all was ready and the hour of the cor- 
onation arrived, there rose up from the plain 
below, filling the great depression and reverber- 
ating from the fastnesses of its towering, rocky 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 439 

rim even unto the remotest parts thereof, such 
sounds as had never yet been heard. Bells 
rang forth and cannon roared from far and near, 
while shouts of prayers and songs of praise burst 
from the lips of millions of assembled devotees. 

Much discussion has arisen and occasional 
criticism has been engaged in, even on the part 
of priests of the church, relative to the truth 
of this miraculous event, in consequence of 
which, near the close of the nineteenth century, 
the church consented to an expert examination 
of the sacred emblem, when a committee of high 
standing being agreed upon, consisting of three 
chemists and three artists, each of renown in 
their calling, and unfettered in their religious 
beliefs were permitted to remove the tilma from 
its encasement and examine the same in the most 
scientific and painstaking manner. Their full 
agreement and final decision was that the color- 
ing matter was a pigment unknown to them; 
that it was not a painting of any kind ; and that 
its production was by no method known to art. 
This has ever since, to a great degree, silenced 
the voice of the skeptic everywhere, for now that 
it has passed through and withstood the severest 
test of finite power, by whom and through what 
remaining evidence can the claim of miraculous 
and divine origin be overthrown? 

At this writing nearly three hundred and 
seventy-five years have elapsed since Juan Diego, 
letting loose the folds of his plain garment, 
and showering the roses contained therein at the 



440 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

bishop's feet, this strange and yet unaccounted- 
for image appeared upon its surface, During all 
these centuries it has been guarded zealously, 
and never, day or night, for the minutest space 
of time, has it been beyond the reach of worship- 
ing and watchful eyes. To-day not only the 
tilma remains intact, unblemished, unimpaired 
and free from the finger of decay, but the 
mysterious image upon its face grows seemingly 
stronger in its lines and brighter and more beau- 
tiful in its coloring as the centuries fade away. 
It has long since passed boyond the pale and 
possibility of proof that its alleged origin is a 
myth, and will ever remain the holiest of all the 
holy shrines of Mexico. 

Far away over the mountain ranges to the 
west, situate in the state of Jalisco and not more 
than one hundred miles from the Pacific coast 
is the little town of Talpa. Some fifteen miles 
northerly therefrom lies the neighboring town 
Mascota. 

Occupying a niche in the church at Talpa 
was a figure of the Virgin about three feet in 
height. Many years ago (the figure, having 
then, through age, become bedimmed and soiled) 
the priest ordered it removed for repairs and 
redecoration, when a servant of the church, an 
aged woman, who for years had scrubbed and 
swept and dusted therein, pausing from toil at 
frequent intervals to worship this blessed image, 
indulged in lamentations so loud at the disturb- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 441 

ance of her divine idol associate of so many 
years that it was permitted to remain until the 
following day. All night long she knelt before it 
in anguish and darkness, and lo, when the morn- 
ing light streamed through the windows above, 
its rays fell upon and lighted up the decorations 
of the shabby lady of the previous day. It was 
and yet remains a work of art beyond the power 
of any artist to execute in a single night. The 
miracle spread like wildfire throughout the land, 
and soon, upon the occasion of some important 
church event to be held at Mascota (the neigh- 
boring town referred to), the holy image in its 
miraculous garb was taken thither and placed in 
the church at that place to remain a guest of 
the occasion. During the night following its 
arrival an earthquake shook the land, the tower 
of the church crumbled and fell, and, as related, 
the discontented virgin, climbing down from her 
place of deposit in the church at Mascota, walked 
back the fifteen miles, climbed up into her accus- 
tomed niche in the church at Talpa where she 
was found the following morning, and where 
she has ever since remained. 

In the latter part of the month of March of 
a recent year, the writer, journeying with pack 
and saddle animals from Ameca, the railway 
terminus, to a point far away into the wilds of 
the western coast, passed for many miles over the 
trail that led to Talpa. It was the month in 
which occurred the annual pilgrimage of dev- 



442 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

otees to this holy shrine, which is more than 
eighty miles by bridle path over rough and arid 
waste from Ameca, a town of twelve thousand 
people. No great distance had been covered in 
our journey when these returning pilgrims were 
encountered. Men, women and children, the 
greater portion on foot bearing upon their backs 
the burden of food and blankets necessary for 
the trip ; others on foot, but driving before them 
beasts of burden ; still others of higher stations 
in life who rode some animal — a burro or a 
horse. All day long streamed homeward this 
motley throng of weary, foot sore, yet devoted 
pilgrims. Bordering the xlmeca river on the 
west stretches a rugged, precipitous range of 
mountains over which our trail led. All of 
the way down its eastern slope had poured a 
never-ending stream of beings of varied con- 
ditions and interesting accoutrements for the 
journey, each bespeaking, in some degree, the 
blind, unwavering faith they followed. Toil- 
ing upward and near the summit, at a point 
where the trail turned in its zigzag course, there 
confronted us a comely maiden, leading gently 
by the hand, along the rocky, thorny, precipitous 
pathway, an aged and totally blind father. This 
was indeed the limit of all our observations and 
impressions of faith, devotion, and sacred belief. 
For, whatever may have been our own impres- 
sions regarding the truth of all this, such an 
example of acceptance, devotion and martyrdom 
could not but appeal to the loving loyalty of any 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 443 

mind, for when a child lovingly, tenderly and 
uncomplaining leads its aged and blind parent, 
each with naked feet, over a hundred and sixty 
miles or more of burning sand and broken rock, 
toiling through the thorny intricacies of moun- 
tain fastnesses, fording deep and swift running 
streams, subsisting upon the coarsest fare and 
that in sparing quantities, when they shall have 
done all this in their love and devotion of any 
cause, be its tale truthful or otherwise, surely 
they should not pass on forever unheeded and 
unrewarded by the ruler thereof, be he finite or 
infinite. 

At the hacienda of Senora Hernandez that 
night, was gathered a motley throng. The ranch 
was a camping place about midway on the trail 
between Ameca and Talpa ; a sinuous stream 
crossed the trail here at the foot of the little 
rise of ground upon which the senora' s house 
stood. The house was an adobe after the Mex- 
ican style, long, rambling and low; the latticed 
doors of the windowless rooms opened upon a 
broad porch, the floor of which was covered with 
red earthen tile, and which extended from end 
to end of the building. Senora Hernandez was 
a large, fine-looking woman past fifty years of 
age, her heavy tresses of dark hair tinged with 
gray ; the strong lines of her face giving an im- 
pression of sternness and severity that was soon 
dispelled by the soft notes of the Spanish 
tongue as it flowed melodiously from her lips, 



444 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 



while the strong features she possessed kindled 
into the light of sympathy, kindness and good 
will. 

Her blood was the mixture in about equal 
parts of the native Indian race with that of the 




And the Senora crossed herself reverently at each mention of the Virgin of Talpa. 



conquering Castilian. Being born and reared 
here, she had witnessed many gatherings like 
that of this night with throngs of her race rest- 
ing from their pilgrimage gathered about their 
diminutive camp fires without, together with 
wandering heretical guests of foreign birth 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 445 

within, and she trod the red earthen tiles of the 
long porch majestically, now dispatching a Mozo 
to some point in attendance upon the stock, then 
directing the dressing of two chickens being pre- 
pared for our evening meal, which arranged, 
she leaned over the porch wall and interrogating 
a little group of pilgrims gathered below, rever- 
ently crossed herself at each mention of that 
miraculous image of the holy virgin at Talpa. 

Late that night we wandered about amidst 
this weird scene of wayfaring worshipers, out 
of the bright light of one camp fire through the 
belt of intervening darkness and into that of 
another, watching here the grinding of their 
kernels of maize upon the stone "metat" and 
the baking of the tortilla upon a bit of iron, 
until, wearied with the never-ending scene of 
little cavalcades still arriving, others preparing 
and devouring their evening meal, with still 
others wrapt in slumber for the night, we too 
retired to our cuarto in the casa of the senora. 

With a feeling of absolute safety, surrounded 
as we were by this host of devout followers of 
the faith, and without fear of intrusion, save 
perhaps on the part of a prowling member of 
the senora' s herd of numerous swine, which 
roamed at will about the hacienda, we swung 
the latticed door wide open and retired for the 
night. 

The writer from his cot placed at the far 
end of the room, could, through the open door- 
way and the darkness without, still plainly view 



44:6 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

far out across the stretch of gently sloping up- 
land, the range o'er which we had journeyed, 
silhouetted as it was against a moonlit sky. He 
had slumbered long when partially awakening 
and unconsciously opening the eyes, there ap- 
peared a line of restless dancing lights extending 
far away into the dark distance of the mountain 
range to the east, and partially sleeping, he in 
dreamy vision experienced again the intense ex- 
citement and wild delight of that first event 
forever recorded in childish memory a "Wide 
awake' ' or "Little Giant" parade away back in 
the days of Lincoln and Douglas, and in fancy 
saw those wonderful uniforms of cape and cap 
in black or yellow, and heard the stirring notes 
of fife and drum. Then further awakening, the 
vision cleared, and arising and going forth into 
the open air in an effort to solve this strange and 
striking night affair, saw extending from the 
stream at the foot of the slope below, as large and 
blazing lights, then far away across the sloping 
upland and even unto the mountain tops beyond, 
where through distance they had gradually 
grown smaller and dimmer until now but seem- 
ing fireflies, an almost unbroken line of torches 
borne by these already departing pilgrims, 
whereby to light their way through the intensity 
of darkness which precedes the early dawn. It 
was indeed as weird and impressive a spectacle 
as one might witness on the part of those wor- 
shiping hordes who for so long and in such vast 
numbers have toiled over mountain and plain 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 447 

through the desert wastes of Arabia. Watch- 
ing long this line of march shrouded in dark- 
ness and marked only by blazing torches, 
slumber again overcame deep interest, and the 
bright morning sun, standing high above the 
summit of the eastern range, now lit the pathway 
of the faithful, when the kindly and partially 
shrouded face of Senora Hernandez peered in 
at the open doorway, and her soft, sonorous 
speech announced the fact that the morning meal 
was awaiting at the far and shaded end of the 
red tiled porch without. 

In the drainage of the Rio Ameca not far 
from the head of the bay of Banderas on the 
Pacific coast, was located a mine owned by 
Americans and known as El Carmen; the ex- 
amination of which was in part the object of the 
writer's journey. One or more of these owners 
from the far east and near the Atlantic coast, 
all strangers to the writer, having preceded, were 
to be met upon the ground. 

It was late at night several days subsequent 
to our departure from the hospitable roof of 
Senora Hernandez when the weary pack and 
saddle animals of our little cavalcade drew up 
at the vine-clad portales of the hacienda of 
Senor Antonio Escalante, a stopping place near 
the mine, and where was found smoking and 
enjoying the late evening air of this tropical 
climate, the visiting owners of El Carmen, to- 
gether with the genial host and others. 



448 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

Partaking of a hasty meal, and returning 
to the party outside, we sat and talked and 
smoked long and late beneath the sheltering 
branches of the tropical foliage which nourished 
in towering and tangled masses about the place. 

In one of the owners of El Carmen, named 
Coleman, there was that which appealed to the 
writer's previous knowledge and acquaintance; 
his form, movements, speech and manner were 
all seemingly familiar, but above all, while the 
balance of the party, Mexicans and Americans, 
smoked, the former cigarettes and the latter only 
cigars (and the cigars of Mexico are fine and 
cheap) this individual clung tenaciously to a 
peculiar looking pipe, and picked and rolled and 
powdered the tobacco in the palm of his hand in 
an old fashioned, peculiar and familiar way 
before filling it, until there no longer seemed any 
possibility of this being our first meeting, and 
now followed a line of conversation of an inquir- 
ing nature that soon developed the fact that the 
strange impression was well founded and true, 
for the man was no other than Edivard Coleman, 
who, as a lad, had been the writer's companion 
twenty-eight years previous during the lengthy 
voyage and later still upon the golden shores of 
our destination. 

Early the following morning our little party 
wended its way upward and along the winding 
trail that led to El Carmen far up in the lofty 
hills to the west, Reaching the dump there 



EEMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 449 

awaited us, standing amongst the numerous Mex- 
ican miners engaged in sorting ore, a tall and 
sunburned individual, differing to no great ex- 
tent in dress and general appearance from the 
lighter hued of the natives, and only in the flu- 
ency with which he spoke the English tongue 
was the possibility of his being other than a 
Mexican noticeable. He was introduced as the 
superintendent in charge of the property, and 
though his name at the time escaped me, I 
was from the first impressed of a familiarity 
with the man as in the case of Coleman, which 
as the hours passed grew more forcible even 
down deep in the darkness of the mine's depths, 
when at last, after a vain struggle to acquire it 
and thus avoid the uncomplimentary disclosure 
rapidly becoming more so through the lapse of 
time, at once engaged in manifestations of ex- 
treme disgust at this sudden loss of pretended 
memory, and humbly and apologetically begged 
his indulgence and kindly assistance in enabling 
me to recall his name. 

"Askew," he replied, "Walter E. Askew; 
and have I not met you before? Were we not 
camp mates and prospectors together in the Gun- 
nison country and upon the Ute Indian reser- 
vation during the summer of 1879, now a 
quarter of a century since ?" 

We were. And late that night, and each 
night of our stay that followed, a reunited trio 
sat beneath the vine and fig tree of Senor 
Escalante and smoked and talked of those days 



450 REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 

of youth on land and sea, and traced the hap- 
penings and wanderings of each until, the mid- 
night hour at hand, Coleman knocked the ashes 
from the quaint old pipe, and polishing its bowl 
in the palm of his hand preparatory to returning 
it to its case (as he was wont to do on board the 
Colon in days gone by) there arose in the minds 
of each during the brief silence that preceded 
the final "buenas noches," the well founded im- 
pression that the world was indeed small. 

The engagement ended at El Carmen, the 
writer, with his little outfit, turned northward 
and entered upon a journey with pack and 
saddle of twelve hundred miles or more, all of 
the way by trail, and over the roughest country 
to be found in all Mexico. Yet, though rough 
and wild and free from telegraph and telephone 
lines, railways and even wagon roads, it was 
still a long-settled country and lacked that pris- 
tine charm so faultlessly preserved by the 
North American Indian in the United States, 
and which in early youth it had, for a brief time, 
been the writer's privilege to enjoy; then the 
great act being near its end, had watched the 
busy and relentless hand of evolution shift the 
scenes, then saw the curtain fall to hide its 
charms forevermore. 

Well along the backbone of the Sierra 
Madres our little outfit made its way, first upon 
one slope, then upon the other, wandering over 
steep and precipitous elevations, along the face 



REMINISCENT EAMBLINGS. 451 

of sheer and rocky declivities, following not the 
"straight and narrow path," but the sinuous and 
narrow trail, down deep into barrancas of inter- 
minable depth, along these and out into the 
broader valleys to which they were tributary, 
when lo, the dream of existence in limitless fields 
of undisturbed and unadorned nature are ruth- 
lessly dispelled; for here rests a little village 
midst vines and fruit trees with fields of culti- 
vated ground surrounding the whole, and now 
during the heated portion of the day, there is 
little in the way of sound that denotes this arti- 
ficial adornment or the existence of its people 
save occasional peals of the bells in the tower of 
the little mission church which fronts on the 
plaza; for the church and the plaza are found 
everywhere in Mexico, and the tiniest hamlet 
is not without them, though in the remotest por- 
tion of the land, and even yet a hundred miles 
or more removed from a wagon road, and far 
more deeply impressed are we with the fanatical 
zeal, heroic effort and mammoth magnitude of 
that work that spread this form of the Christian 
faith into and throughout these wild and most 
forbidding parts, when we enter this compara- 
tively diminutive sanctuary here in the distant 
wilds, than when we tread beneath the grand 
and lofty arches of that monstrous and magnifi- 
cent structure, the Cathedral of Mexico, for this 
little church in the wilderness wherever it may 
be found, is seldom less than three hundred 
years of age, this alone bespeaks the fact that it 



452 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

must have been well constructed ; usually it is of 
stone, and more less of carved brackets and 
moldings and tablets adorn its exterior ; but why 
those formidable buttresses that in nearly every 
case support its walls ? Upon closer examina- 
tion we find its roof is also stone, a single great 
arch that reaches from wall to wall, and though 
its radius of curvature is great the centuries 
come and go and still no weakness manifests it- 
self throughout. In many cases these churches 
of the frontier were strongholds, and adjoining 
them upon one side, (accessible only through 
the church) is an enclosure surrounded by 
masonry walls twelve feet or more in height, 
which, at a point some six feet below the crest, 
decreases its thickness, leaving a shelf or path- 
way around the entire enclosed area, this upper 
and thinner wall being pierced with port 
holes of prismatic form, having their smaller 
opening within. At each angle of the wall 
is a circular tower from which port holes 
open in all directions; while within the 
church may be found a shaft or incline con- 
necting with a tunnel which leads well down 
under the bed of a nearby stream, insuring a 
supply of water for the besieged. In the interior 
of these remote churches, scattered throughout 
thousands of miles of rugged mountains and well 
within their fastnesses, may be found in every 
case more or less of wealth in the line of art 
and church ornamentation; paintings that in 
most cases bespeak the touch of a master hand, 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 453 

set in massive frames that of themselves are 
works of art. Altar fixtures and images of Christ 
and the Virgin, all gorgeous and without end. 
And when one considers the fact that all of this 
was brought from the mother country hundreds 
of years ago, and packed upon the backs of 
animals from the seaport of Vera Cruz, far 
away over mountain and plain into the farther- 
most corners of the land, the magnitude of the 
work appeals to one as of such monstrous pro- 
portions and beset by such obstacles that the 
mind is lost in wonderment at its final and 
full accomplishment. 

We had reached a point well to the north 
and in the state of Senora, when, following a 
trail that led out of the mountains down into 
the valley of the Moctezuma, and to the town of 
Batuco, the noon hour was near at hand, and 
casting about for a suitable camp, we suddenly 
came upon an aged man camped by the side of 
a trickling stream and beneath the sheltering 
branches of a dense growth of dwarfed trees 
which grew upon its bank. The pack outfit with 
which he traveled was heaped together nearby, 
while two Mexican burros of large size, which 
conveyed the whole, grazed contentedly not far 
away. 

It was, upon the whole, an inviting spot in 
which to spend the heated portion of the day, 
and we too camped close by the venerable 
stranger. He was short but of rugged stature, 



454 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

his hair and beard were tangled masses of gray, 
his age evidently past three score and ten, and 
his skin sunburned to an extent that rendered 
determination of his nationality uncertain until, 
replying to our salutations, his speech provided 
conclusive evidence that he was an American, 
still the stern old patriarch manifested no great 
degree of enthusiasm at meeting his countrymen 
in even this uninhabited, remote and foreign 
spot. Long we tarried until the sun had passed 
far away from the meridian, and long and in- 
dustriously the writer labored in the attempt 
to draw from this silent old sojourner by the 
wayside of these Mexican wilds the more or less 
interesting story of himself, which he knew all 
such to possess, for again in this case I was im- 
pressed even more forcibly than before with a 
vague recollection of this being, a strange and 
and undefinable familiarity with him, his man- 
ner and his accoutrements, yet only the cloudy 
vision of pre-existence presented itself in ex- 
planation. Finally rounding up the jacks and 
saddling them he, without comment, prepared to 
depart. Reaching down amongst a tangled mass 
of equipment deposited upon the ground a short 
distance away he pulled therefrom a belt and 
holster from which protruded an ancient cap and 
ball "Colts," while a peculiar looking old knife 
was fastened upon the opposite side. The scene 
grew more familiar. Then, leading up the pack 
jack, he in disentangling the cargo preparatory 
to packing, disclosed his cooking outfit, an old 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 455 

bit of dirty, greasy canvas, a fry pan, a little tin 
lard bucket and a tomato can. Instantly my 
dreamy vision cleared, and I saw standing be- 
fore me the eccentric prospector who, more than 
a quarter of a century before, had, with the little 
pack mule and the pinto saddle pony near night- 
fall trotted down out of the breaks, and estab- 
lished camp near that of the Hayden survey on 
Torrey's Fork in Wyoming, and who, the fol- 
lowing summer had kidnapped me at Gothic on 
the north fork of the Gunnison river in Colorado 
for a night's entertainment in open camp and 
pouring rainfall upon the river's bank below. 
And this Avas the same old "Colts" that in his 
drunken stupor I had gently lifted from its 
holster and deposited in the nearby shallow pool 
for safety as I crawled away through the wet 
grass and willows in escaping from my stren- 
uous, yet overindulgent host. 

But where was the little mule and pinto 
whom I remembered so well, and which alone 
remained to complete the scene? And again 
I recalled the fact that twenty-five years had 
passed since then. 

But a short distance had been covered in 
leaving Batuco the following morning when the 
writer was taken suddenly ill. Clinging to the 
saddle horn in sheer desperation during the en- 
tire day we plodded onward beneath a broiling 
sun until after nightfall we had reached the 
little hamlet of Matope, some forty miles dis- 



456 REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 

tant. At the foot of the thicket-clad bluffs upon 
which the little town rested, coursed a tiny 
stream of clear water, while the balance of the 
wide drain was a bed of dry sand, upon which, 
(our outfit halting for the night) the writer fell 
from the saddle insensible. 

It was midnight when, awakening with pain 
and distress, I found myself lying in the bright 
moonlight upon a cot where the attending Mozos 
had placed me. And now, while I rolled about in 
the sand groaning with pain, they arose and 
stood over me, powerless to render any assist- 
ance, when, just as the first gray light of morn- 
ing dawned, the sound of merry voices upon the 
village bluffs above broke in upon the wailings 
of distress below, and looking upward, there 
appeared passing in single file down and along 
the face of the declivity, nine graceful and state- 
ly maidens, the stateliness of whom was en- 
hanced through the poising of a large "olla," 
or earthen water jar which each, untouched by 
hands balanced upon her head. At intervals 
the line paused, and ceasing from their mirth, 
stared curiously at the writhing, howling, un- 
kempt individual over in the dry sands of the 
drain, then, venturing downward to the stream, 
they knelt upon its bank, and dipping the water 
from the shallow brooklet until their jars were 
filled, arose and huddling together with fre- 
quent inquiring glances, engaged in a low-toned 
and final discussion of the strange scene, then 
raising the vessels of water to their heads, re- 



REMINISCENT RAMBLINGS. 457 

sumed their dignified and stately march up the 
narrow path by which they had descended, final- 
ly disappearing over the edge of the escarpment 
en route to the village and their respective homes. 
It was a wierd, poetic and impressive parade, 
and a faithful reproduction in real life of well 
remembered pictures in the old family bible of 
the writer. 

But a short time elapsed after the disap- 
pearance of this water supply system when an 
aged man and woman of the toiling class made 
their appearance in the drain, and diagnosing 
the writer's ailment, returned to the village and 
shortly reappeared with a gourd filled with tea 
made from roots and herbs, together with a 
similar solution for external application upon 
the affected portions, and while these good 
Samaritans squatted beside the cot and sought to 
soothe my afflictions, a courtly and distinguished 
appearing native of evidently the higher walks 
of life, as measured by possession of the world's 
goods, appeared and insisted upon removing me 
to his home in the village, where his wife, his 
daughter and himself bestowed upon me (an ab- 
solute stranger and an exceedingly unpresentable 
one at that) every care and attention for two 
days, until again able to journey onward. 

And now, departing from these people who 
scorned any monetary reward for their service, 
the question arose reproachfully in my mind, 
where, on the part of the people of my land, 
under similar circumstances and general appear- 



458 REMINISCENT RAM BEINGS. 

ances, could I guarantee to these and theirs a 
like demonstration of kindness, sympathy and 
zealous care. Uninfluenced by position, posses- 
sion or hope of reward, and further, in view of 
the many patronizing and uncomplimentary re- 
marks heard concerning these people, it is but 
fitting to record such deeds as this, and for one 
who knows to assure the reader that such is with 
the natives of all Mexico not the exception, but 
the rule. 

Journeying on northward up the Rio Mocte- 
zuma to its head, and on to where the Rio Bate- 
pito suddenly changes its course from north to 
south, we had now reached a point where, from 
the higher elevations, the great arid wastes of 
Arizona and New Mexico again presented them- 
selves, featureless, forbidding and dreary. 

The charm of this native land that lay before 
us, that of nature unadorned, with its flora and 
its fauna undisturbed, had vanished from every 
portion thereof a generation now past. And in 
all these wanderings through the wilds of a 
neighboring domain, from far away out of the 
sunny south and its atmosphere of entrancing 
mysticisms of antiquity, and the charm of its 
yet existing customs and art, we had failed to 
find that which we once enjoyed, and of which 
we witnessed the passing in our own home land, 
for none but the North American Indian has 
preserved that condition for which we sought, 
and where, unassociated with any other of 



REMINISCENT RAMBEINGS. 459 

humankind but he, the forest remains primeval, 
the deer, the elk, the buffalo, and even the fish 
of the waters and the fowls of the air fear not, 
and roam at will. 

Alas, in retrospection we find these Homeric 
conditions to have now passed to such an extent 
that, though at times, in their pursuit or other- 
wise, led far into the fastnesses of these early 
scenes, we find at last a spot possessed appar- 
ently of its pristine charm, uncontaminated by 
the seemingly polluting touch of civilization, 
when, ere the dream is fairly formed, there 
breaks upon the ear the discordant notes of that 
advance agent of industry, the burro, the sound 
of a prospector's shot, or the vulgar tones of 
the steam whistle. 

We turn in hopeless longing when, from the 
soul, there echoes back the stern declaration, 
"That for which you search shall live in the 
land to gladden the hearts of you and yours, no 
more, forever." 

THE END. 



